In the fashion world, it's not what's in your head, but what's on your head that counts. A baseball cap? A beret? Or something a little more provincial, like a wool cap? Milliners spend a lifetime mulling such matters and creating new styles of headwear.
One up-and-coming star currently turning heads in Japan's hat-making inner circle is Ohko Ishida, daughter of famed milliner Akio Hirata, whose creations have graced the runways of Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto and Hanae Mori, among others.
Back in the late '60s, Hirata studied in Paris under the well-known French milliner Jean Barthet. It was there, in the French capital where Ishida was born, that the name Ohko -- which means "child of Europe" -- was bestowed on her.