Howard Atelier introduces Chapter One: “The Facade You Wore,” a collection that reimagines the hat as a sculptural mask, rooted in the language of performance and concealment. Each piece inhabits the liminal space between public persona and the private self, dissolving the distinction between wearer and observer.

Through streamline designs, the collection probes the tension of identity: the interplay of anonymity and expression, exposure and secrecy. The act of transformation by covering and concealing through wearable sculptures, you are invited to reflect on the questions: What truths do we choose to unveil, and what do we shield in shadow?

This chapter sets the stage for a journey into the charged space where authenticity and artifice collide, challenging the viewer to reconsider the masks we all wear. Set within a place often deemed private and overlooked, the location is fractured and reimagined transformed into a site where observers are compelled to watch rather than turn away. In viewing these still moments, you too become an observer peering and gazing into the lives of others, where intimate acts of innocence quietly unfold.

The Façade You Wore concludes by turning the gaze back onto the observer, asking us to confront our role in the act of looking. It leaves us with a sharper awareness of the fragile line between what is revealed and what remains concealed.