Photograph by Emily J. Davis.
Bea Birdsong met her husband, Newport Beach native Phillip Birdsong, in 2018 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she owned a hat store. After they started dating, she and Phillip took a millinery course in Mexico City with a family who have been making hats for more than a hundred years. In 2020, the couple came to visit Phillip’s family in Newport Beach, making their stay permanent once the pandemic hit.
After hosting successful custom hat pop-ups with their brand Creatures of Love, Bea and Phillip opened a storefront in Lido Marina Village in November 2020. “The space was much bigger than we originally thought,” Bea says. “We decided to display more brands and products besides the hats.”
The pink interior of Maxine gives a sense of the bright, colorful pieces available. There’s an assortment of men’s and women’s clothing and accessories made by designers from countries including Mexico, Colombia, France, Italy, Greece, and more. You’ll also find Orange County-based artists such as Alrik Yuill, who made the surfboards that stand at the entrance. At the back of the store, customers can design their own felt hats.
Bring in a group of four to 10 guests for a hat party—two hours of hat designing, Prosecco or mezcal, and a 15 percent discount storewide.
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