Travel: Another Jem of a Place Unearthed in Marikina

Another spur of the moment, "respond quickly issue" to be met and guess where our itchy feet took us today, albeit the number coding being implemented in Manila which our car have never been excused.   I've been working on helping out a friend in Milan, Italy prepare for her grand wedding on May, and part of the list is to buy hats and fascinators.  I've been to Greenbelt 5 and got a bit disappointed seeing how expensive brocade hats and hair-pieces.  I also made a number of trips to Divisoria and bought these...

But this particular wedding inspired from the Royal Wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton, had me looking other satisfyingly gorgeous head ornaments that will surely fancy the girls of the entourage.

Kate Middleton wearing a charming mini hat, in black.

Thanks to the the WHAM's (an FB group of wort-at-home-moms), I was able to gather enough suppliers to check for these most coveted accessories.

With much Googling, I found this site...Lucban Hats' website, and see what jewel my girls and I have stumbled upon.

We were instantly brought to hat heaven...
We marveled at hats of all sorts of colors and designs.  I didn't even know first which to hold and  try, my eyes were like rolling all-over and it's like I was a kid on a candy spree.

Hehe, look at me on a selfie episode wearing one of the cutest light turquoised-color sinamay hat.

They also have quite a few against the summer rays of the beach and also for the fashion-sensed guys.

 We particularly adore this pastel pink, flurry huge hat...

I just can't resist not trying another one.  This royal blue hat with black band and sinamay ribbons I bought for my mama, who is one of the 43 pairs of  Principal Sponsors of that wedding.  She will be surprised.

Trying out this elegant black velvet mini.

Dana wearing one of the hat she like.

Compared to the ones bought in Divi, theirs are more elaborate in design and quality is unmatchable.  Fascinators'  price start from P300 up and the hats from P600 to... I'm not sure how much.  I find them pretty affordable compared to what we can buy on specialty boutiques in the malls.   The lady who assisted us, told us that we can have a particular design to be used but we need to expect a higher cost for that. However I don't think they make a particular design without really mass producing them.  You can hardly get a design having two or more items on hand, specially at this time of the month, for they replenish at the end of every month and according to her, stocks don't last that long because many are buying in bulk, even foreigners have found their path here.

They are open from 8 am to 5 pm every Monday to Friday.  Best to give them a ring or an email for other queries or before coming over.

So you think Marikina is only famous for their shoe making skills huh!  Think again, it's also a treasure trove of culinary spots, places of interests and more.  My kids had a fun time checking scenic spots along the River Banks and let me just commend the authorities at Marikina, aside for being one of the cleanest (if not the cleanest) city in Metro Manila, the towns are very organized as well, we didn't find it hard to go around and look for Lucban Hats Factory.



Lucban Hats
Address:  53 Rajah Soliman Street
               Parang, Marikina City
               Philippines

Telephone/Fax: (63-2) 941-3496
Email:  hats@lucbanhatsglobal.com