About Us

Chapeau Creations

For over 45 years, Chapeau Creations' Hats has been well known for their original and beautiful custom-designed hats. The company designs, manufactures and imports high quality millinery from Europe and Canada, and sells to high-end boutiques and customers throughout the U.S.

Chapeau Creations' founder, Master Milliner Ruth Kropveld, was trained in hat design as young teenager in Berlin, Germany, as was her mother and her grandmother before her. She was a Holocaust survivor who hid in Holland in the 1940s and later moved to Cincinnati with her husband Jesse after the war. She started the Chapeau Creations in 1979 and retired at the age of 84 in 2005.

Elaine Kropveld-Berger

Museum Exhibit

Master Milliner Ruth Kropveld

In 2005, Ruth’s daughter Elaine Kropveld-Berger took over the business and moved it to the Chicagoland area. She is a fifth-generation hat designer who “learned hat designing from the best teacher”, her mom. At a young age, her and her sisters were trained in millinery design, manufacturing and the apparel business. Elaine’s background in computer graphics helps her create the catalogs, the website, and print media for the company.

Elaine explains, “our hat designs are created locally, but some limited editions are custom manufactured of the finest silks, satins, sinamays in England, Germany and Canada, by the world’s finest hat makers. Our English supplier, for instance, is the official hat maker to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, and other members of the royal family. Our hats have been exhibited in museums as art and have won many design awards”.

Our customers range from high-end boutiques and shoe stores, to churches and synagogues, to bridal shops and specialty shops, providing stores and individuals with women’s hats for all occasions such as weddings, garden parties, religious events, the Kentucky Derby, and everyday wear.