Hats by Susanne Oliver, Amanda Ziljoen, Kee Wilkinson, Aliona Kononova and More
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Issue 71, February 2012 Next issue due 15th February, 2012 the e-magazine for those who make hats This Month: Hats by Susanne Oliver, Amanda Ziljoen, Kee Wilkinson, Aliona Kononova and more... i click here to turn over Issue 71 Contents: February 2012 Millinery in Practice People at work in the world of hats. This month: Irish milliner Susanne Oliver. Hat of the Month Learn about this lovely hat and something about Amanda Viljoen, who created it. Collector’s Items... We talk to Kee Wilkinson about creating hat collections. Cover Story... Aliona Kononova’s amazing Dandelion Hat. How to... Make a silk pillbox. Part 2 - Creating the trimmings. This Month’s Give Away We’re giving away three instructional DVDs. Letters to the Editor This month - keeping your hat on. The Back Page Interesting hat facts; books; contact us and take part! 1 previous page next page Susanne Oliver Couture Millinery in Ireland Susanne Oliver is a hat designer from Galway, Ireland. A true creator of couture headwear, Susanne’s work has been commended by Stephen Jones and she has done an internship with Philip Treacy. We interviewed Susanne to find out a bit more about herself and her millinery... Where did you learn how to make hats? I studied textile design in college, specialising in hand painted fabrics and accessories. I then worked in fashion retail for many years, where I noticed a growing demand for hats and headpieces that were completely different from what was on the market. When a work colleague couldn’t find a headpiece to match her outfit I created one for her. I was pleasantly surprised at the reaction it received! I went to a two day workshop with milliner Linda McKay in Kilkenny and learned blocking techniques. She was surprised with my quick grasp of these techniques and encouraged me to continue to play around with different fabrics and materials. Do you specialise in any particular styles of hats? I create couture hats and headpieces made to match a lady’s outfit or bridal gown. I also sell finished pieces from my collections. I specialise in hand blocked and hand stitched hats and headpieces. m I love to create pieces that are totally different but with a vintage or modern twist. I like to make my own flowers and trimmings too - my hats are all handmade from start to finish. I never create the same hat twice, so that a lady will never be caught at a wedding with another lady wearing a similar piece. I use hat blocks and my own freeform blocking techniques, so that my pieces have unique shapes and styles. I am www.mikepatterson.co now working on my own © hat block designs. Flower Burst - silk flower with vintage brooch. 2 previous page next page Where do you make your hats? I have a studio at home where I create all of my hats and where ladies can come and view my collections. I work full-time in my studio. It’s hard to switch off from hat making and I often find myself sleeplessly thinking of techniques and ideas! Which part of your business do you enjoy most? Creating hats and being able to work in such a creative environment. I love the reaction and drama that a hat brings. It’s great to be able to advertise my medium in such a fun way and to meet such interesting ladies. Which part of your business do you enjoy least? I don’t enjoy the book keeping side of the m business - I like to think that I have an endless materials budget! Also, I sometimes feel that some of my fellow hat designers focus too much on the competitive www.mikepatterson.co © side of millinery and forget that hats are Above: Va Va Voilet - Hand blocked and hand stitched sinamay with vintage feathers. all about fun and self expression. Right: Ooh La La - Hand blocked sinamay and lace flower. © www.mikepatterson.com 3 previous page next page How did you get an internship with Philip Treacy? Tell us a bit more about this experience. One night, on a whim, I decided to send Philip Treacy photos of some hats that I had created. I was delighted when, two weeks later, I got a call inviting me to do a one month internship at his studio in London. Philip was very down to earth and looked after me very well during my time there. He has a very strong team of hat designers who work long hours creating his beautiful hats. I have great memories of his studio, one of which was assisting him with masked pieces created for the Vogue Anniversary Ball in Paris. As a thank you, Philip let me choose two of his completed hats to take home and another hat for me to finish off at my home studio. I was soooooo happy to receive a lovely Christmas card from Philip saying he loved the g Hotel hat that I had created, based on the fabulous g hotel here in Galway which Philip designed. He and I were both recently involved in a documentary about people’s love of hats. It features a lady who collects hats from Ireland, Philip discussing his Royal Wedding hats in his London studio and me creating hats for a group of clients and friends attending the Galway Races - which is like our little mini Ascot! Left: Susanne, in the Philip Treacy hat which was given to her to finish off at home, and her puppy Ted, wearing the Christmas headpiece that she made especially for him. Above: The g Hotel and Susanne wearing the hat that she made for the Hotel’s Hat Design Competition last summer. 4 previous page next page How do you advertise? I have just launched my website, www.hatsbyoliver.ie. Business also comes from my Facebook page, but I still find the most effective advertising is by word of mouth. It is the best compliment when a lady recommends you to a friend or family member. What are your plans for the future? I would like the opportunity to travel to find unusual millinery materials. Last year, Susanne gained international recognition as the only Irish milliner to be chosen as a finalist in the Stephen Jones’ Hat Design Competition. The Competition, which was judged by Stephen Jones himself and Vogue.com’s Editor Dolly Jones, was put on in conjunction with the Hats: An Anthology exhibition at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City. Aliona Kononova was chosen as the winner (see page 10) and nine other hats were given a special mention. Susanne’s Cotton On hat (above), which is made completely out of cotton buds, made the final shortlist. Stephen described it as “fun, light, innovative and very beautiful.’’ The Red Shoe Productions hat documentary, featuring Susanne and Philip Treacy, will be aired later this year on TG4, Ireland’s Irish language television channel. Look out for more information in the How2hats newsletter. Some masks from Susanne’s collection. 5 previous page next page Hat of the Month by Amanda Viljoen This stylish sinamay saucer hat comes all the way from South Africa and was made by Amanda Viljoen on a Guy Morse-Brown Hat Blocks Ltd FB9 hat block... “I saw the FB9 block on Guy Morse-Brown’s website at the end July and fell in love with it,” says Amanda. “It was just one of those items that I could not do without.” The FB9 is a 450mm saucer block with a gentle downturn on one side and an opposing upturn on the other. Having found the right block, Amanda then had to decide what materials to use. She knew that she wanted the finished hat to be elegant, with a minimal amount of trim to compliment the shape of the blocked design. She found some blue cord and bows in her collection of notions - just the type of thing she had been envisioning - and then chose blue sinamay to match these trimmings. Saucer blocks come in two parts - a large saucer shape block, which has a circular hole in the centre, and a small dome shaped block which is used to press the ‘bump’ into the hat. Amanda wet three layers of sinamay and stretched them onto the saucer block, covering the hole. She then pressed the dome block upside down into the hole and placed a weight on the top of it to form the ‘bump’. Finally, she pinned the sinamay tightly to the rest of the block. Once the blocked sinamay was dry she began the rope design, curving it little by little. This part of the process was time consuming, but the result was worth the effort. Amanda plans to make another saucer hat soon and to experiment with tracing a design onto it to sew over. 6 previous page next page Finally, Amanda had to make sure the hat would stay safely on the wearer’s head. Some people attach saucer hats to a headband to achieve this, while others create a skull cap to place underneath the hat. Amanda opted to make a small skull cap using the dome block which came with her saucer block. Once she’d attached the skull cap to the saucer hat, she sewed two loops inside the cap and inserted hairpins. Amanda’s studio is located in Langebaan, on the Western Cape of South Africa. While this is a beautiful part of the world, it can be a difficult place to be a milliner due to the lack of local hat making supplies and the prohibitive shipping costs for receiving materials from overseas.