“Whenever I had started my millinery journey, I found out that my great grandmother was a milliner, something that I never knew,” Susan (40) says.
“It came down through the generations. She had lived in America. I had lived in America as well and when I came home, I started millinery. They were doing the family history and found out that she had worked in America as well and came home to work as a milliner.”
As a young child, Susan loved art, making jewellery and clothes for her Barbie dolls, so her chosen career path was a natural progression for her.
“I enjoy the creative process,” she says. “Usually, I have an image in my head of the finished piece, but once I start the creativity takes over and it almost always turns out even better that I could have imagined.
“I draw my inspiration from nature, and I love combining different textures and colours as I feel it gives the piece character and personality.
“I make bespoke pieces for all occasions, but the main bulk of my work is for mother of the bride and groom, bridal headwear and ladies day pieces. The majority of my pieces are one-off creations. I work with the client to create a piece that is suited to their individual style requirements.”
Susan maintains regular contact with the customer throughout the making process.
“The starting price for one of my pieces is £110 for a headband style piece,” she says.
“Once I start a piece it would take a couple of days to finish.
“If they have their appointment booked in then once I actually start the piece, I have it ready in a few days, but I need a few months in advance to allow time to get materials, have consultations, and get all that organised.
“You have a consultation with the client and get a feel for their style and what the requirements are, and then as I make a piece, I would send on images of exactly how it’s going so before they actually have the piece, they know exactly what it looks like. I touch base with them to make sure they are happy with how it’s going.
“I block all my pieces by hand and wire trim and embellish them and finish the inside of the hat to give it a good finish. It takes time.”
Susan’s work previously caught the attention of Gok Wan and the stylist contacted her in 2019 to participate in his One Size Fits All show at the Hilton Hotel, Belfast. Recently the creative has secured another notable collaboration.
“I’m actually collaborating with a super talented artist called Jacqueline Rooney,” she says. “Her works amazing, so herself and myself have decided to combine our artwork. I’ve made headpieces and she’s going to use them as her canvas, so she’s going to paint the pieces, so it’s going to be a live art gallery, wearable art.
“We are hoping to have a collection out for spring/summer. The date has to be confirmed yet; we are just in the makings of it at the minute. It’s really exciting and we’ll definitely be promoting it through social media. It’s something totally different: two artists coming together working in different mediums but joining it just to see what the outcome is.”
To those who are considering a career in millinery, Susan shares this advice: “To be a successful milliner requires creativity, thinking outside the box, [being] open to all possibilities, and say ‘yes’ to every opportunity and you will be surprised where the journey takes you.”
For more from Susan, see susanmageemillinery.com
Ceara Fennelly
Millinery student Ceara Fennelly was inspired to learn how to make hats during a trip to the Galway Races in 2019.
“We were at the Galway Races for my mother’s 60th birthday and the style was just sensational, absolutely sensational,” Ceara (39) recalls.
“I thought to myself, ‘for the next race day, I really would love to make my own headpiece’ and it kind of just came from there, the love of the style and the way it made people feel and look.
“I just loved the atmosphere, and you could tell that people felt confident and vibrant and it made them feel good getting dressed up. You know day to day you have your mammy head on you, and to get glammed up and dressed up, it just makes you feel that little bit special for a few hours and it’s something to look forward to. So that’s kind of where it came from.”
The Loughguile mother of three undertook various courses and was then asked to redesign a headpiece owned by a friend’s late sister to be worn to a royal garden party at Buckingham Palace. Working on that headpiece inspired Ceara to pursue her passion and she went on to set up her own business, Four Seasons Millinery.
“Whenever I started the millinery, I didn’t realise how in-depth it was,” she says.
“I didn’t realise how many styles, how many materials there were; it’s absolutely so vast. I’ve done a lot of one-to-ones. I’ve done one-to-ones with [designer] Fee McToal. I’ve done some group sessions away at the start with Gráinne Maher. I’m part of the Milliner Business Academy with Katherine Elizabeth online and each month she’ll give you a different piece of work to challenge yourself on. She’ll teach it to you online and then you’ll go off and make your own piece and she’ll mark it for you. You have to do 12 submissions before you get your qualification. So, I’ve just been working away at that at the minute.”
In addition to holding down two other jobs, as an aircraft dispatcher and terminal operations officer at Belfast International Airport and support worker for people with learning difficulties in Derry, Ceara hand makes headpieces for a growing customer base. All Four Seasons Millinery headpieces are one-offs, excluding a range of beaded and diamante hairbands.
“I keep quite a lot of the headbands in stock as they are quite popular for young ones,” Ceara says. “I did one for Nicola Coughlan from Derry Girls. But everything else is completely bespoke, every single time started from scratch with a one-meter piece of sinamay [fabric], and it turns out a creation for someone.
“Because I’m a student I just really charge for the materials that I’m using, so mine are probably priced at much cheaper than a professional milliner. My prices usually start at £60 for a proper fascinator. I know they can go away up in the hundreds, but I’m not there yet to be charging people that sort of money.”
Ceara says her orders are quite often influenced by what Kate Middleton is wearing: “Whatever she wears just goes off the scale as soon as she wears it.
“The halos are still very much in style. I’m finding that very much a lot of people are coming in with pictures of her and asking for something similar to be made. Obviously not copies as that’s very, very important, as is copyright.
“Because there’s so few people in Ireland that do this, it’s very easy to see people’s styles and recognise different people’s styles. I have got an eye for it now that I can recognise anybody’s styles pretty much a mile away, so it’s really important that that’s respected, and if somebody shows you a picture of somebody else’s work that you say, ‘Listen, I can certainly do my version of it, but I can’t copy someone else’s work’.
“There is really only a handful of people who do this bespoke, so it would be very, very disrespectful to try and copy their work. You very much have to put your own stamp on it and explain to the person that it’s not ethically right to copy someone else’s work.”
Commenting on Wear A Hat Day, Ceara says: “I think it’s a really clever idea. Anything to raise any sort of awareness for any of these charities can be nothing but a really good thing, so I’ll certainly be highlighting it myself on social media.”
The student milliner dreams of launching her own collections one day, and in the meantime she’s looking forward to celebrating her “big birthday” in September, attending race days, and creating bespoke headpieces for customers throughout the year.
See @fourseasonsmillinery on Facebook and Instagram
Gráinne Maher modelling her work
Gráinne Maher’s work has been shown on the catwalks of London Fashion Week, the Irish Fashion Awards, and a catalogue of prestigious shows over the years. Her creations have graced the pages of publications across the globe, including Harper’s Bazaar China and Vogue Italia.
The milliner’s customers include racegoers, mothers of the bride and groom, celebrities, and royals such as Sarah Ferguson Duchess of York, and she collaborates with fashion designer Kevan Jon on biannual collections. Gráinne has supported Wear A Hat Day over the years in various guises, particularly through her membership of The British Hat Guild.
“Millinery is something I’ve been doing for 15 years, I’ve been doing it for quite a while,” says Gráinne, who has a degree in music.
“I’ve always had an interest in the arts, music, theatre, sculpture, painting; all that kind of stuff. Really I just had a sort of a eureka moment I guess 15 years ago when I had started my young family, and I realised I wanted to be self-employed, and I was always driven to work for myself.
“I was searching for something to do creatively, that I could work for myself and be my own boss, and I stumbled on the notion of millinery. I went and did a few short courses and realised that I had a really good flair for it.
“At that time there weren’t too many people in Northern Ireland doing proper couture millinery, so I thought well that’s a good thing, that’s a niche, and I threw myself into it and it’s been a constant evolution, training and upskilling and adding to your repertoire as the years go by.”
Despite her success, Gráinne’s feet remain firmly on the ground and she strives to continue learning and enhancing her skillset.
“Every artist would. I don’t think any creator or maker would say that they know everything about art or making,” she says.
“I think anybody who doesn’t think that way is doing themselves a disservice.
“I will never copy other people’s work, so I always have to find out something new that I can do that certainly people in Ireland aren’t doing.
“I am very passionate about always trying to carve out a new niche for myself in each collection that I do. You have to deal with different materials and different processes and it’s all learning.”
Whilst the designer has some bestsellers that she remakes, Gráinne’s work is predominantly one-off bespoke pieces, handmade to meet each customer’s individual requirements. When it comes to her style, that’s tricky to label, she explains.
“With each year or two that goes by, you will be drawing on maybe a colour palette for example and you might restrict yourself that way. You might restrict to using certain materials and maximising what they have to offer.
“Style is an evolving thing, but I would say that I am modern milliner, but I keep it classy as well.
“To be commercial you have to get the balance right between being… you can’t be too avant-garde. I do avant-garde pieces maybe for a catwalk show or for a photoshoot or something like that. That’s the thing with millinery, it’s not so easy to pinpoint what is your style, because actually it is dictated a lot from what’s going on from the neck down. A hat isn’t a standalone object; it will also be something that’s considered within a full outfit.”
Commenting on current headwear trends, Gráinne says: “In recent years big hats are back, really big hats with a crown and brim, quite traditional shaped hats. And hairbands and halos are really popular. Kate Middleton wore a halo for one of the kids’ christenings and people just went mad for them since then. So a combination of halos and headbands and large hats, and anything with veiling and a vintage vibe is extremely popular as well at the moment.”
To be a successful milliner, Gráinne believes it’s important to be motivated and tenacious.
“Being an artist of any kind or a creator or maker, you have to be a self-starter and be focused,” she says.
“You are going to obviously need all the right tools and kit, but your toolkit can evolve over the years.
“You can start small and build from there. I think the basic thing is to never stop learning, like I said at the start.
“Always be prepared to be training and upskilling and becoming familiar with what the latest technologies are and what’s happening in the wider fashion scene, and other cultural references, art, music, pop culture, that kind of stuff.”
The entrepreneur has a number of projects in the pipeline for 2023, but is unable to share the details of them as yet.
“I have literally about three different things, all of which are pretty embargoed,” she says.
“I really am working on something massive, but I just can’t talk about it.
“I’ve just recently taken on a larger studio space down at Corporation Street at Love Wedding Studio, so I’ll be looking probably to hire one or two assistants this year. Especially if a few wee other things come off, I really will need help.”
For more from Gráinne, see grainnemaher.co.uk