Mary is a woman on a mission to turn heads. She has been a stall holder at the Original Eumundi Markets for many years and is the success story behind Topshow featuring the ‘Noosa Hat’.
Moving to Noosa with her three children in tow, Mary joined her mother and sister in the making of straw hats to sell at the Eumundi Markets. Mary recognised the lack of quality Australian made hats, so saw an opportunity to expand upon this blossoming and leisurely enterprise of hat making into something more serious. Before long, Topshow was born.
For women, the wearing of hats in one form or another has been around for centuries. In the 1900’s, hats were a fashion statement. Small, positioned on top of the head as an accessory to a tight twist of hair.
In the 1910’s the dimensions of the hat grew with large brims shading a woman’s shoulders, until the roaring twenties entered our history books, and the hat took up position of lower on the brow and hugging more closely the shape of the woman’s head.
In the 1930’s it was once again, all about showcasing the brim but this time with a smaller head piece to allow a woman’s full head of curled hair to be her statement of the day. The look and shape of head apparel for women’s fashion changed again in the war years as the forties saw rationing of textiles and fabric. Headwear then needed to become serviceable and practical, and hats became close fitting thus minimising the use of valuable commodities.
Post WWII many women chose to leave home without their once prised head wearing apparel. Hats declined in popularity until the sixties when First Lady, Mrs Jackie Kennedy stepped out in her pillbox hat revolutionising the fact, a woman’s hat is not only one of her most prized possessions, but it can also be functional, fashionable, and quite fabulous when placed on the head of the wearer.
Now fast forward to 2022. Meet Mary, Virgil and Glenda who are the innovators of fashion and practicality with their ability to develop and make hats designed with both quality and style in mind. The attention to detail, quality workmanship, along with hard work, led this trio to establish themselves a growing reputation amongst hat enthusiasts in the local Sunshine Coast and Hinterland areas.
‘Topshow’ is an Australian hat manufacturer specialising in quality handmade hats for both women and men. Their showpiece is the ‘Noosa hat’ and it is in this form of apparel they have made their name is this market.
The Noosa Hat is the original and bestselling of the Topshow category hats. This particular hat was inspired by and designed in Noosa to create a unique and high quality hat perfect for the Australian climate with its UPF 50% factor to keep you protected year round. Being Australian made, it comprises of only quality fabrics. Washable and foldable, the Noosa Hat will always keep its shape and last for years.
In keeping with the ethos of the Original Eumundi Markets, all Topshow hats are hand-made in the Sunshine Coast and come in a variety of different styles, colours, and sizes to suit all.
Whether your flair for the day is a Noosa Hat, Wearable Hat, Picture Hat, Ponytail Hat or Boater Hat; Mary and her team will show you how you too can take your place amongst the many women in history to turn a head for fashion and practicality, such is the undeniable versatility of the humble hat.
Topshow Hats is the stall. Mary is the stall holder, and this is another of the many stories just waiting to be discovered at the Original Eumundi Market every Wednesday and Saturday.