Dear Holly

May I, on behalf of all the ladies who took part in your workshop last Saturday, say a big thank you for coming all the way to Lerryn to run what I understand was a very enjoyable and successful day.

I’ve heard from all the ladies who took part.  They thoroughly enjoyed the day, they thought that you really knew your stuff, explained things really well and were grateful for the patience and kindness you showed them.  They were certainly pleased with their fascinators which I am told are all quite different (they have promised to bring them along to the next WI meeting for us all to see).

I hope you enjoyed the day Holly as much as the ladies did.  Once again, many thanks and all the very best for your future workshops/business ventures.

Kind regards,

Sue Daw

Programme Secretary

Lerryn WI

I have been lucky enough to have been working at Philip Treacy London over the past three months. If you are unfamiliar with his work he made thirty six hats at last years royal wedding, including Beatrice’s famous hat which later sold for £80’000 on ebay.
I hit the ground running in January working on pieces for Paris couture fashion week. We were working round the clock to achieve breath taking catwalk pieces for Armani, Givenchy and Didit (see pictured).
I glued crystals onto snake like head pieces using a pin head, I made buttons out of pony skin, I stitched brooches onto turbans and I even had to do fifteen dye samples to velvet elastic to match madonna’s hair colour ….Yes amongst the couture madness Philip somehow managed to get a Super bowl Cleopatra head piece in for Madge! It was made out of acrylic and ‘rapid prototyped’ with a 3D printer. The 100’s of hand glued Swarovski crystals covering it made it sparkle from all angles. It was very exciting to have it in the studio one minute and then see it all over the papers the next.
…….And this was just my first two weeks!

Over the time that followed I worked on many different styles of hats , from Philips current collection, sampling his new A/W 2012 collection and hats for other celebrities and royalty.

There are fifteen people at P.T HQ: Philip (obviously), eight of us on the production team, one press/PR lady, one buyer/fabric sourcer and two people running accounts, planning and running the day to day business. Two work experience and three dogs

There is so much to tell you about the place and I undoubtedly will miss out a great deal. But I will just have to tell you the bits that stuck out for me.

In the morning I would walk in to the sunny studio (there is one continuous window the length of the room). Radio 2’s pop master would be on and I would pick a hat off the ‘hat tree’ to work on. Yes I did say ‘Hat tree’! Each milliner has their own and they can hold up to twelve hats in various stages of completion. As you can imagine it makes for spectacular viewing when you walk in the room. Coupled with all the materials and feathers strewn around the place, the studio is a riot of colour! Like a multi coloured hat forest.

After two or three weeks of working there I discovered a new room I that I didn’t know existed. With all the fashion week madness I hadn’t been shown ‘the flower room’. Undoubtedly any girls dream! There were about twenty five boxes, all with different style numbers on for each hat in the production. There were satin roses in hot pink, velvet rosettes in turquoise, chiffon flowers with rolled edges, huge ones in multi colours with little baby flowers coming off the side….many many different styles. They are all hand made and sent over from the continent.

My other favourite rooms were: ‘the spray room’, for spray painting all sorts of things. Where the walls were covered in sample squirts in every colour of the rainbow! And ‘the blocking room’ which contains the wooden forms used to shape all the hats (similar to a shoe makers last). The room is floor to ceiling with all shapes and sizes of blocks. It also has the familiar smell (to a milliner) of all the stiffeners and chemical thinners used when manipulating straw, felt and sinamay.

The wax cast of Lady Gaga’s head was another highlight! Philip had been sent it from New York so that he could make a mask to fit her face perfectly. It was quite freaky as it had no hair and the eyes were glazed over.

I am going to have to leave it at that before I divulge too many fashion secrets. Needless to say it was a great experience for me and I will be back there again to work on other fashion week projects with him!

In the mean time I am working on my new bridal collection, running my hen party fascinator workshops and taking commissions at my studio in Truro.

And go to Philip’s website to see more of his stunning creations at www.philiptreacy.co.uk .

A week or so ago I went on a Millinery pilgrimage to Luton with my milliner friend Amy. A trip I have been meaning to go on for about six years. Luton’s heritage is steeped in hat manufacturing and even the local football team is called ‘The Hatters’ .
Like much of Britain’s manufacturing industries, overseas competitors have taken the bulk of the work. However, the companies in Luton that provide quality goods and services are flourishing.

My first stop was Boon & Lane the block makers. They make hand carved wooden molds to any specifications. They also make metal cast blocks for mass production. Their workshop was amazing. As far as the eye could see were casts of hat shapes made in plaster. The dust created from this covered every surface. Steve Lane kindly showed us the tools they use for the job and the furnace that melts the metal ore. Everything is made by hand and with a skill that takes years and years to master. So when you buy a bespoke hat, not only is it hand made but the block its self is hand crafted too. Each season they design a new range of shapes which you can view in their show room. A milliner can commission their own design which they know no one else will have. See pictures at the bottom of this page.

Next was Ruegger F Ltd a millinery supplier to the trade, supplying raw materials: straw hoods, feather mounts, feather flowers, sinnimay fabric, braids and trimmings. He shared the building with a hat manufacturer. And again there was floor to ceiling with hats and boxes of materials ready to be sent out. We bought some bits and pieces for ourselves and went on the the next shop.

Just down the road was our third destination, Randall Ribbons. Again another supplier of materials, feathers, netting, hat pins etc but with the addition of selling pre-blocked hat shapes. This means you don’t have to buy your own block to have the shape. The milliner can simply trim and decorate it to their own requirements. Amy and myself had fun trying on some funky creations!

Last of the day (as most companies shut at 4pm) was Baxter hart and Abraham
They sell materials, straw hoods, straw stiffener, elastics, petersham ribbons in every shade and hat boxes.

There were a few more places we didn’t have time to see but it was great to finally see the places and people behind the websites. I buy all of my supplies from the UK and will continue to support the British millinery industry as the expertise of the people I met have been handed down for generations.

I am really please to have been selected for Cornwall Today’s ‘Top 10 Cornish Designers’!
I am still in London freelancing at Philip Treacy and wasn’t aware the magazine was out until I got a phone call from my dad who read it out to me!
The other designers in the selection are very talented and I am very proud to have been chosen by The Cornwall Design Forum!
I will be back in Cornwall at the end of April to continue working on my designs and fascinator workshops / Hen parties.

Milliner Holly Young featured in Cornwall's top ten designers.

I have been lucky enough to have been offered a three month contract for the one and only Philip Treacy! For those of you who don’t know him, he made 36 hats for the royal wedding (including ‘that hat’), a diamante lobster for Lady Ga Ga, numerous pieces for the late Isabella blow, a lace mask for Grace Jones…the list goes on. As you can imagine I am very excited. I shall be traveling up to London in a few days to start work on collections in the run up to London and Paris fashion week.

I sadly will be unable to take on any commissions during this time but I will be happy to respond to any enquirers. My hen parties will run as normal and if for any reason I cannot come to Cornwall one weekend then Annalise Harvey will take the reigns. Annie is a couture wedding dress designer maker with 10 years experience within the costume industry including making tiara’s and head dresses for ballet so you can be rest assured you will be in beautifully experienced hands.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries.

….wish me luck, Holly

Take a look at my step by step tutorial on how to make up the fascinator kits! It’s fun and suitable for all abilities of sewing. The only requirement is that you can thread a needle! Click on the link here: Holly Young Fascinator Kits instructions. to view the video on YouTube. Happy making!

Please contact me for colours and prices.

People often want to buy extra materials from me after a workshop so I have devised these little kits to make from home. Ideal as a gift and easy to send in the post with no breakable parts.
I will soon be adding them to my shop but for now they are doing the rounds at all my Christmas fairs in many colours. Please contact me if you would like to order one before they reach the shop!

What's in the Kit, netting, sinniamy base, sinnimay loops, beads, buttons, feathers, comb, needle, thread, instructions.

On Monday 28th November it was ‘Team Day’ at Atelier Millinery. I am now a guest tutor so I was kindly invited up for a day of making fun!
We had the honor of Bridget Bailey teaching us how to make her trade mark straw pea pod head pieces.
There were six milliners including Bridget, so there was plenty to talk about and share. We had lots of cake over the course of the eight hours, not to mention tea (followed by champagne)!
We first learned how to roll the straw into a point. Easy you might think but we spent two hours practicing on little triangles of straw first before we attempted our pod shape. The peas are made from wooden and paper beads then covered in fabrics of our choice and strung up on a wire. I am not going to give away too many of Bridget’s secrets so I’ll just show you our end results!
I think you will agree they are rather fun!

Bridget runs millinery classes at Atelier Millinery, from her studio and at Kensington & Chelsea College. Look up these website for more details.

www.atelier-millinery.com
www.baileytomlin.com
www.kcc.ac.uk/fashion-and-millinery

I am going by Great British Rail once again to our capital city to further my quest in Millinery knowledge.
First stop is the christmas ‘Craftacular’ at York Hall, Bethnal Green, where my university friend ‘Miss Millinery’ aka Amy Johnson will be selling her vintage style head wear, amongst many other talented crafters.
Then on Monday I am taking part in our ‘Team Day’ at Atellier Millinery (where I am a guest tutor on the ‘fascinator recipe’ course). Top milliner Bridget Bailey will be teaching us how to make fantastic pea pod shaped head bands -out of sinnimay I believe!! soo excited! She is a really respected milliner who teaches many workshops throughout the year so I feel very lucky to be spending a fun day with her and other like minded milliners. I shall upload some photos and keep you informed of how it call goes!