A better idea: Gay Stonehouse’s hat box

Collapsible see-through box helps hats keep their shape

By Nancy Gall
Citizen Staff Writer

    Gay Stonehouse hopes heads go to her success    The longer the current vogue for hats lasts, the likelier this Manotick resident is to make a hatful of cash on her new Millinery Vault.    After about 8 years of research, Stonehouse has invented a stackable, collapsible, see-through hatbox which helps chapeaux keep their shape.    A longtime hat fan herself, Stonehouse owns more than a dozen hats of varying formality.    “I could throw on a straw hat just to go grocery shopping.” says Stonehouse. “You can wear hats with anything.”    Her search for the perfect hat storage started when she placed a want-ad looking for hat boxes. She got about a dozen, culled from the basement or attic clean-outs, ranging from a luxurious taffeta-lined leather number, to a small hatbox from the old Freidman’s department store (now the Bay).  

    “They were not functional” says Stonehouse, who teaches Grade 1 pupils at Greely Elementary school. “You still have to stuff (the hat) with tissue or news-paper”.    

    The idea of Millinery Vault was born one day when Stonehouse placed an old lampshade inside a hatbox to help retain the shape of the hat. Years of trial and error, research and prototypes have resulted in the final six-sided pyramid version made of co-polyester resin in two sizes - 13 inch, and 18 inch diameter. She’s applied for Canadian and American patents.

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