Wisconsin cheese takes fashion forward at this year’s Kentucky Derby

This weekend, Wisconsin cheese will make its debut at the Kentucky Derby atop the heads of stylish spectators.

And these hats aren’t your average Cheeseheads — they are elaborate designs that pair six award-winning Wisconsin cheddars, goudas and fontinas with high fashion.

“The main thing you want to see with a Derby hat is elegance,” designer Christine A. Moore told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”

Moore is the owner of her own high-end hat shop in New York City, where she has been creating hats professionally for more than 30 years. In 2018, she became the Kentucky Derby’s featured milliner.

For this year’s Derby, Moore partnered with Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin to unveil Rinds & Roses, a collection of cheese-inspired headpieces with haute couture flair. The six fascinators in the collection feature iconic Wisconsin favorites like Sartori’s Merlot BellaVitano and Red Rock from Roelli Cheese Haus, with proceeds benefiting a diabetes center in Kentucky.

“The most elegant day in sporting — you’re not going to wear a Cheesehead, you’re going to wear a ‘fromaginator,’” she said.

From fascinators to ‘fromaginators’

Moore’s philosophy is “anything can be a hat,” so she was eager to dive into the Rinds & Roses project. She said it didn’t hurt that she was sent a variety of cheese samples to get her familiar with the flavors and spark her creativity.

“Twist my arm,” she said with a laugh.

But unlike Moore’s other creations, which can be whimsical interpretations of flowers or confections, in this case she wanted to honor the artistry of the cheesemakers by making lifelike versions of the cheeses. 

“This project was different because I had to repeat another artist’s work,” she said. “It wasn’t just my imagination of what a piece of cheese looks like, but it was a specific piece of cheese. So that was really difficult.”

For Moore, one of the biggest challenges was using materials like silk and linen to capture the texture of soft cheese like the Camembert-style St. Saviour from Hoard’s Dairyman Farm Creamery. The Wisconsin cheese specialists she collaborated with would ask if she could make the paste — the main part of the cheese within the rind — “a little creamier.”

“I was like, ‘This is fabric. I don’t know how that’s gonna work,’” Moore said. “‘I can try my best, but I don’t know if I’m gonna get it quite as creamy.’ But it was a nice challenge.”

Along the way, Moore also developed a newfound appreciation for the beauty of the rind, which is often edible and lends a lot of flavor and texture as a cheese ages.

“Now I’m like, ‘Oh, look at the rind!’ at the grocery store,” she said.

As with all of her work, the “fromaginators” in the collection are entirely handmade. The finished result looks like a party-ready cheese board complete with silk apples, pears, figs and Moore’s signature hand-rolled roses.

“It’s kind of cartoonish, but that’s what makes it fun,” Moore said. 

A Derby debut 

As the featured milliner, Moore visits the race track every year for Derby Day. While the event can be hectic, she always looks forward to it. 

“It’s explosive, it’s fun, it’s bright, it’s happy,” she said. “Where Easter used to kick off spring, now it’s the Kentucky Derby.”

Throughout the day, Moore meets clients who are wearing her hats and is around to help with fashion emergencies.

“There are dress emergencies. There are shoe emergencies where I glue somebody’s shoe back together. I’ve sewn people back into their dresses because the zipper popped,” she said. “And then, of course, things like, ‘I can’t get my hat to stay on my head.’” 

One of the things Moore loves about the Derby is that it’s “fantastical,” in her words — a place where the wild and elaborate are welcome. 

“I say anything can be a hat. Cheese, why not?” she said. “If you want to wear cheese on your head … if you do something well, why not? The Derby is like that.”

With the Derby soon behind her, Moore hopes to see her cheese hats make a splash again this football season.

“Can you imagine if we see the ‘fromaginator’ at the Packers games?” she said. “Why not? If I saw one in the crowd, I’d be thrilled.”