Deep Blue Sea (hat)

Deep Blue Sea is a hat designed by Australian milliner Ann-Maree Willett, made from Australian wool felt and set with 26 precious opals from Lightning Ridge, weighing a total of 1447.5 carats.

Deep Blue Sea was the feature piece of the ‘Climate’ series of hats that launched Willett’s international millinery career. It contains more Lightning Ridge precious opal than has been brought together on any other wearable item and became famous as “the million dollar opal hat”, then later as “the most valuable hat ever offered at public auction.”

In 2007 milliner Ann-Maree Willett was invited to represent Australia with a collection of hats at Corso Como design centre in Milan, Italy. The collection, ‘Climate’, comprised a series of hats inspired by Australia’s natural environments and earned Willett one of the few Churchill Fellowships to be awarded for design in Australia, as well as a relationship with famed Italian company Borsalino. The centrepiece of this collection, Deep Blue Sea was designed and manufactured as an item of runway or catwalk couture - a wearable sculpture rather than an everyday item.

Deep Blue Sea was inspired by the Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef system on Earth, located off the coast of Queensland in north-east Australia. To create the hat, Willett collaborated with opal miners Vicki and Peter Drackett of Down to Earth Opals, at Lightning Ridge in NSW, Australia and master goldsmith Gerd Gerold Schulz, also of Lightning Ridge and formerly from Idar-Oberstein in Germany, a city famous as a gemstone centre.

Boasting 28 precious opals that weighed a total of 1486.34 carats and were custom-mounted in 337.5 grams of sterling silver and 18 carat yellow gold, Deep Blue Sea had a retail value in excess of A$1 million. It became widely known as “the million dollar hat”.

Following its debut in Milan in February 2007, Deep Blue Sea was shown at the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival in March 2007, then the Australian Masters of Fashion Awards in July 2007, followed by a national tour of Australia. In February 2008, two of the opals on the hat were sold, leaving 26 opals weighing 1447.5 carats. The hat was exhibited again at the Australian Opal Exhibition in July 2008, then at the International Opal Jewellery Design Awards in July 2009.

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Wikipedia