Cloche Encounters

Amy Hamilton displays her feminine, 1940s-style hat designs in her studio. "I wanted it to feel like a boutique," she says. She got her wish. If the family's ducks, Huey, Louie and Dewey, weren't constantly quacking outside her window, Amy could very easily picture herself in a 19th-century atelier. The studio's windowsills are deep enough to hold hat stands, and built-in display cabinets flank the rear window. Overhead, an ornate chandelier hangs down through the opening to the hayloft, the only hint of the barn's original purpose.

A broad table holds a colorful collection of antique wooden hat blocks. "I try to work with classic shapes, but with a fresh approach," Amy says. And against one wall, she's stuffed scores of cubbyholes with hundreds of yards of ribbon and lined up dozens of jars filled with bright beads and buttons.