A Passion for Fashion
The Maureen Schmitzer Story 2007

A Tropical Queensland Fashion First

"My new found skill commenced in 2004".
I was attending a classical music concert/fashion parade of designer clothes in Townsville, North Queensland, Australia, in a fabulous venue on the slopes of Castle Hill overlooking the city below. There were many prizes on the day and I won two: one was for creating something to wear from the bits and pieces on the table – bits and pieces of twine, lolly wrappers, pins, pieces of material, beads – just all sorts. Well, the creative side came out then as I won the prize for making a matching tiara and necklace. I think I won a “hairdo” for that effort.

Next I won the lucky door prize – and no, no, it wasn’t a door, it was a $50 voucher at the designer’s boutique of the fashion parade. Well, what would I do with a $2000 gown in Townsville and besides I wasn’t size 6 – so I went to the designer for advice and she informed me she held hat making classes – now, this class cost me many hundreds of dollars on top of my $50 prize but, well, it changed my life!!! I would never have undertaken this course otherwise.

A Fabulous Red Hat, that changed my life...

So after many weeks I created the most beautiful extravaganza – a fabulous red hat with a turned up brim, brimming with feathers. I found my life changing as I donned my prized hat creation – I started attending the horse races (not that I ever saw any horses) but entered the Fashions of the Field. I won many prizes and got into the top 10 finals at many events with this wonderful red hat.

I actually won best hat at one racing event!

Award Winning Fashion Hats

Then I ventured further afield and voyaged on a cruise ship from Sydney to Melbourne to attend the famous Australian race meeting – the Melbourne Cup. For this event I resurrected a bright pink hat with a teal blue Fascinator and wore it with a Thai silk pink and teal blue suit. I didn’t make the final in the Melbourne Cup Fashions but I was interviewed by the Melbourne Herald and my hat story was published in that newspaper.

The following day I went off to the Kyneton Races – a big event in the Spring Racing Carnival and again my splendiferous red hat was runner up. I was thrilled about this win, as there were some lovely hats by some famous milliners at this event.

The Birth of Fascinating Fascinators

From here I branched out into making Fascinating Fascinators as I realised from the reaction of friends and associates that there was a marketable available for my designs. Firstly, I just created for friends, then set up in market places, and eventually my home based industry became in such high demand that now, I have ladies knocking at my door, in groups, with their outfits, shoes and jewellery, and we just “make them something” if I don’t have something in stock which suits.

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