About Jennifer
Jennifer Kofler
Jennifer Kofler is throwing her hat into the ring! Vivian Blooms is an enchanting collection of handmade millinery and accessories filled with fun and whimsy for all ages. This new company will make a statement this year with creations that delight and amuse. Women will find a collection of wonderful hats, each one made by the milliner herself. The hats are decorated to delight and be enjoyed with crystals, pearls, and most of all, flowers.
Vivian Blooms creates each flower using the centuries-old French millinery technique, beginning with the finest natural fabrics of velvet, silk, and linen. With this process, the natural fiber is starched and then hung to dry. The flower petals are then cut out of the stiffened fabric. Each is then crafted by hand. The flowers are manipulated by heat, twisted and turned, then worked into arrangements and attached to the custom-made base.
For weddings, afternoon tea, a day at the races, or an unforgettable night on the town, be an original, and be in bloom!
Fashion Trends in Couture Headwear
with International Maven of Millinery
Jennifer Kofler,
Owner of Vivian Blooms
Jennifer Kofler, owner of Vivian Blooms, enables clients to celebrate life’s moments with fanciful headwear. With an enchanting collection of handmade millinery filled with fun and whimsy for all ages, Vivian Blooms helps clients, stylists, and fellow designers find headwear for special events. Explore the intricate detail, design elements, and seasonal trends that are captivating the attention of the world’s elite designers and stylists.
Blooming Trends in Event Headwear: Looking beyond the bare trees and winter beanies is a fantastical season celebrating flower blossoms, festive floral décor, and, more importantly, the height of head-to-toe fashion for celebrated events around the country.
From the White House Easter Egg Roll in D.C., the Easter Parade in NYC on April 17th, the Central Park Conservatory Hat Luncheon, Hattitude for the Denver Center’s Women’s Voice Fund, to Mothers’ Day, Kentucky Derby parties, garden parties, and 5-star hotel afternoon teas, Springtime wastes no time in delivering fashion-forward events demanding discerning attire. Millinery for special occasions helps to create elevated atmosphere with style and whimsy.
Origins of Millinery: Throughout the fashion and entertainment industries, hats have been preeminent in demonstrating character, class, and image, as well as setting the tone for the rest of the outfit. According to HatTalk.com, “Hats have been worn for thousands of years. Initially, they were primarily used for military, religious, or survival purposes. It wasn’t until the development of the fashion industry in the 18th century that millinery became a profession. The word milliner comes from the word Milan. In the Middle Ages, the Italian city was the hub of the world’s textile and fashion trade. Those making fashionable lady’s hats became associated with the city because of the materials they used.”
Kofler comments that “A hat is magical the moment someone puts it on their head; it changes how a person acts and feels. Our hats are decorated with crystals, feathers, and bows. Hats are a wonderful outward expression of a person’s inner truth and personality. They have the power to both enhance and transform the wearer. Amazingly versatile, hats can be a celebration of style, frivolity, and fun, or conversely an acknowledgment of somber events. Millinery help create an elevated atmosphere for participants across many occasions. From weddings to funerals, headwear plays a role in declaring an event’s importance. Headpieces can be seen as tangible reminders of life’s most momentous and significant events.”
Inspiration and Craftsmanship: Vivian Blooms has taken center stage in the fashion world, from magazine covers to features in Fashion Avenue News, Voyage Denver, Urban Family, Race Day News, Hong Kong Press, and countless others. As an American ex-patriot herself, Kofler studied fashion trends worldwide throughout her various residencies overseas in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Guangzhou and Shanghai, China; and currently in the Middle East.
Kofler creates each flower using the finest natural fabrics of velvet, silk, and linen. With this process, the natural fiber is starched and then hung to dry. The flower petals are then cut out of the stiffened fabric. Each is then crafted by hand. The flowers are manipulated by heat, twisted and turned, then worked into arrangements and attached to the custom-made base.
If some of Vivian Blooms millinery looks good enough to eat, perhaps that is because Kofler didn’t start out as a milliner. Before she began designing and creating headpieces for Vivian Blooms, as a graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Kofler’s first creative job was in restaurants as a pastry chef in New York City for some years. Vivian Blooms hand-made millinery has been heralded in London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and the United States. The company has collaborated with Miss. Victoria Regina to create the Mavens of Millinery, a Colorado-based collective of milliners creating outdoor Pop-Up Hat Shops in Denver 2020 and for the Kentucky Derby Parties of 2021. Vivian Blooms is currently planning for the Dubai World Cup in spring 2022, introducing the brand to new clients in the United Arab Emirates, and making a statement with creations that beguile and amuse.
“Be an original and be in Bloom.” – Kofler
Blog from Jennifer
IT ALL STARTED WHEN…
As I watched my kids park their bikes behind their school in Guangzhou, China, I wondered to myself again about what I was going to do today. Yes, the kid's television show "Phineas and Ferb's" existential question of existence, meaning of life, and purpose.
"Go and learn something today," I said to them, and as they passed by me I kissed their foreheads in turn. I then returned to a messy but completely quiet apartment and let out a long sigh. Is this a "gilded cage" as my mother had described it to me? Well, metaphorical or not, my cage was again in a state of mess and disarray that only parents of young children could truly understand. In what universe do bubblegum toothpaste and a mini version of a monster truck go together? Well, I can answer that: mine. Maybe my old friend Anderson Cooper has something interesting to tell me today on CNN, my portal to the West.
At this time I was trying to sell handmade beaded earrings, crystal tea lights, lounge pants, feather bookmarks, and sock animals. I had socks transformed into elephants, hippos, zebras, dragons, and much more. This was just another attempt at self-fulfillment in the long hours that stretched out before me. I had in previous attempts considered a reusable shopping bag concept, each one made out of up-cycled material sewn by a disenfranchised part of the population and then sold at the eco-friendly, and environmentally responsible local market back home in Colorado. Before that, it was a website for custom-made jewelry, where you could design your metaphysical beaded jewelry, where each design element would be specific for the intended wearer. Pearls for purity, aquamarines for communication, talismans for protection, evil eyes, and hands of Fatima would dance through my head. But it all slowly fizzled and faded away. Put out by more pressing matters like soccer practice, what's for dinner tonight, and figuring out a good method of cleaning bubblegum toothpaste out of sofa cushions.
But I continued in my fruitless pursuits of small business viability, this time with a sale in Hong Kong. Yes, I was taking my show on the road. If nobody wanted my products in Guangzhou, I was packing them up and pitching my tent somewhere else. I believe it was the great American writer Mark Twain who once said, "To succeed in life you need two things: ignorance and confidence." And I was pretty sure I had plenty of both.
With my daughter Vivian as my assistant, we went to Discovery Bay in Hong Kong for an outdoor sale in May of 2014. I had my usual array of handmade goods but I had also included a few last-minute headbands that I had managed to glue together mere moments before leaving from Guangzhou. Unfortunately, as we were soon to find out, doing an outdoor sale in May in Hong Kong during the rainy season, is not a good idea. After we arrived at the hotel, I turned on the television to get an update on the weekend's weather. And it whereas gale-force winds smashed against our windows and the sky grew ever darker, we went down to the in-house dining room for afternoon tea.
And what to my amazement did we see? A Parade of cute hats and truly fascinating fascinators. There was a wedding taking place in the hotel and I was overwhelmed by the lovely array of beautiful ladies with feathers, crystals, bows, and flowers being worn on their heads. I was hooked. This was my destiny. Making pretty things for ladies to put on their heads. I am home.
As for the typhoon-soaked sale, I'm afraid, I didn't have a record-breaking day. The only sale I did make was the flower-covered headbands.
The train back to Guangzhou was canceled due to flooding. We had to cross the border by foot at Shenzhen instead, then wait under an overpass for two and a half hours for our alternative transportation: a bus back to Guangzhou. We arrived home at 3:30 am, exhausted but with a new spark and direction I wanted to go with my business. Vivian Blooms, a line of handmade millinery and accessories had begun to bloom.
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