Milliner Christine Waring is a Canberra institution. A very stylish, very vibrant institution, who has made hats for some of Canberra's most fashionable women for decades.
And, at age 77, Christine is still working, still sharing her cheeky sense of humour and still loving the art of millinery, hand-crafting and hand-stitching unique designs in her studio in Ainslie.
Last year, The Canberra Times anointed Christine, "The Keeper of the Hats".
Her studio has become a museum, of sorts, for vintage Tracey Lord hats from the 1950s and 1960s.
They were made by Irmgard Grady, better known as Irmgard Lyons, who owned Hats by Tracey Lord in Braddon, and later the Monaro Mall, where buying a hat was less a shopping experience and more a rite of passage for many young girls and women in the national capital.
Last year, Christine was gifted several Tracey Lord hats owned by Canberra woman Lina Shlager, who migrated to Australia from Switzerland in 1953.
Now she has another Tracey Lord hat to add to the collection, one which belonged to a very special Canberran.
It's a lace cloche-style Tracey Lord hat made for award-winning Canberra author Marion Halligan for her wedding.
Marion (nee Crothall) married Graham Halligan on June 8, 1963, at St John's Anglican Church in Reid.
She was 23 and looked sweet in her hat, coat-style dress and gloves, carrying a small posy of flowers.
After a stellar writing career, Marion died in February this year, aged 83.
Her second cousin Robyn Duncan, of Page, found the hat and some remnants of lace from Marion's wedding dress when sorting out her house in Hackett.
Robyn remembered seeing photographs of Marion in the hat. On one of the wedding photographs, Graham had written on the back "specially made for Marion", referring to the hat.
Robyn said she initially thought the hat had been made by a milliner in their own family, "Aunty Lou" but soon saw the Tracey Lord label inside and realised how special it was.
She wasn't sure what best to do with the hat. "Like all good people, I did my research on the Google and Christine's name came up," Robyn said.
She knew it would be in safe hands with Christine, who smoothed out the hat after it had become a bit crumpled, being in storage for more than 60 years.
"I was really excited," Christine said. "I hate throwing anything away, especially a Tracey Lord hat."
Robyn said Marion was like a "big sister" to her and she was always impressed by her contribution to Canberra and to literature.
Robyn, who has taken on her mother's role as the family historian, said Marion's grandchildren might one day want to know more about the hat and the story behind it. She was happy the hat had survived all those decades to reveal a little more about the wonderful young woman who wore it on her wedding day all those years ago.
"We need stories," Robyn said.
