Who wants to be a Milli-ner!

One of our current modules is millinery, and I never expected it to be so much fun… I was lucky enough to find a gratuitously soft, wine-red felt capeline (that’s the raw felt shape you start off with, pictured at the top left). Here are a few images of what I’ve done so far – steaming the felt and blocking it into shape, and the beginnings of a brim. The hat will be cocktail-sized and worn tilted toward the front of the head using a comb. The initial inspiration came from looking at 1940-46 hats and headpieces – I’ve referenced Christian Esquevin’s blog as I found the images in his book, Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label, particularly useful. I am very taken with the strong silhouettes in Adrian’s work – he was principal costume designer at MGM studios in the 30s and early 40s. I will put up a couple of my design sketches when I have them back from assessment, to show the idea…