How did you become interested in millinery?

I’ve loved hats for as long as I can remember. I think I was born loving them. I remember playing dress up in my grandmother’s closet with high heels and hats at a very young age. I have my grandmother’s 1913 engagement photo, and I was always thoroughly intrigued with the huge chapeau she wore in her sepia toned likeness. Easter bonnets were a must in my family. Hats were a requirement for shopping excursions as well, especially with my relatives in the New Orleans French Quarter.

It was quite accidental that I became a milliner. My dear friend and mentor, the late Cynthia White of Lady Cynthia Millinery, called one afternoon and told me she was dying. Cindy asked me to promise her one thing: to open my own millinery studio and to begin making hats as soon as possible. When I told her I’d never made a hat in my life, she replied “I don’t know another person who loves hats as much as YOU and I know you will be fantastic! You have the knowledge inside… just tap into it and let it release.” That was our last conversation as she died one month later. I began LaVictorianRose Millinery in Cynthia’s honor in 2005. We never met in this lifetime. I found Cindy in 1997, while looking for a milliner to replicate the hat Rose wore in the movie “Titanic”.

Where did you learn millinery?

I’ve actually never had a formal millinery class. I have a degree in Fashion and Design from Southeastern Louisiana University. I’m not bragging, but my skill is a combination of natural ability and observing what others have done. I like to think it is a God given gift. I have an extensive library of millinery books that cover any topic imaginable. They are often sources of reference as well as the numerous hats Cynthia made for me.

How long have you been a milliner? Where else did you work?

I have been a milliner for 3 years. I’ve been a designer of various items since my early 20s. I’ve always been a creative person. I’ve dabbled in interior design (including making my own elaborate custom draperies and doing custom upholstery), consulted on interior design projects for friends and neighbors, including designing my own custom kitchen cabinets, custom designed patterns and construction of my own reproduction vintage clothing, and a host of other projects. I did work for the United States Treasury Department for 7 years after college. Now I operate LaVictorianRose Millinery from my home in downtown Port Allen, right on the mighty Mississippi River, directly across from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. My millinery studio is housed in my early 1900s southern cottage.

Where do you get inspiration for your designs?

Inspiration comes very easily for me. My favorite periods to replicate are hats and veils from the Victorian Era, Edwardian Era, and the roaring 20s. I must confess that I am such a history aficionado that practically any historical period is a source of inspiration. Many of the early towns near me were incorporated closely to, if not during, the time Napoleon was in power and thus that style of dress is worn during historical reenactments. I have begun designs that represent my adaption of the Napoleonic Era headwear for those occasions. The other main reenactment headwear that I make are for those involving the American Civil War. I love history and am fascinated by the hats and bonnets women have worn throughout time. I agree when it is said history repeats itself. My clients are each an integral form of inspiration for me, too. I try to represent their personalities through the designs I make for them. My other forms of inspiration come from nature, purveying vintage magazines and books, looking at old post cards, reading rare, early 1900s instruction manuals and, of course, watching historical reproduction movies.

What has been your most enjoyable commission?

I so enjoy each commission that I truly do not have a personal favorite, but if I had to choose it would be my bridal commissions. I am a hopeless romantic and there is nothing more beautiful than designing a veil or hat, with tulle making an ethereal mist around the bride, as well as designing the coordinating hats for her attendants. The flower girl hats are ALWAYS particularly precious.

How would you describe your style of headwear?

My very first thought is very romantic and feminine with a vintage appeal. I try to design hats that are very wearable and comfortable, while beautiful at the same time. Since I do love vintage styles, some of my creations get extremely elaborate, especially Edwardian styles, depending on the occasion.

How did you become interested in millinery?

When I was four years-old, I got my first hat, and I have been fascinated by hats ever since. I assume it must have something to do with pleasure and a feeling for style and elegance, not unusual for girls. I bought my first designer hat when I was 18. At that age I started to design and sew my own clothes, but I did not see the opportunity to be a milliner before I was 50. By that time I was making Norwegian national costumes for women, and by chance I bought an almost complete set of milliner tools and a lot of hat blocks. Although hat design and making is difficult, the rest is quite simple: ever since I have been making hats.

Where did you learn millinery?

I have my millinery education from Oslo, both the formal part (the milliner exam) and the practical work together with other hat designers and milliners. In addition I have several courses; among them three with Waltraud Rainer, one of Australia’s foremost milliners. Last summer I joined a course with Jane Smith at Wombourne School of Millinery. I also read a lot about hats and different epochs. In my opinion I’m never fully qualified. When you are making hats there is always something new to discover or develop.

How long have you been a milliner for? Where else did you work?

I have been a hat designer and a milliner for 8 years now. But I have a lot of experience in creative working. From comprehensive school, but also in ballet (for several years I had my own ballet school) and from working in theatre with children. I worked for six years in the board of the well known poetry festival Son Poesidager, and for many years I had my own art work shop for children. And I’m the mother of five children, two step children and two foster children. And now the grandchildren seems to be coming. But I still feel young.

Where do you get inspiration for your design?

Inspiration is often a result of work. And of course intuition, which in its turn is a result of a non verbal experience and real knowledge. I am inspired by watching other milliners’ hats. But that is not enough. I can take an example: in Copenhagen, which I visit every year, there is a Saturday market where I look for things. Once I found a wooden dish which was formed like a big scallop. Later I read about Gugu Dlamini from South Africa, who was killed because she made public that she had aids. I created a hat to memory her by, where the dish was the block, as a metaphor for protection and vulnerability.

Other times I can get ideas and inspiration when I am charged with a task, for instance when I was asked to make four different hats for The Grand Opening Day of the Duty Free at Oslo Airport. The hats symbolised sweets, tobacco, champagne and perfume. When Norway’s most prominent newspaper, “Aftenposten” (The Evening Mail), went from a full format newspaper to a tabloid format, I made one hat using the last old edition and another out of the new tabloid edition.

But the most essential part for any milliner is people. Whenever someone wants a hat made by me, I immediately think: what kind of hat will fit her and underline her personality? And hat making has made me think like that every time I see a person new to me. For anyone who wants to create something for people, people have to be first and foremost. So to me people and work is best for any kind of inspiration.

What has been your most enjoyable commission?

Beside the three mentioned projects, I have had many exhibitions and shows in art galleries and fashion shops. Speaking of fashion, I have also participated in Fashion Awards in Oslo. And I find hat design for brides very enjoyable. There is a lot to see from orders like these on my website.

How would you describe your style of hats?

They are feminine, sculptural and, I guess, some of them cause surprise. I want them to be usable in many connections, both for everyday and at a party or a celebration. For exhibitions I tend to make spectacular hats.

How did you become interested in millinery?

I have been hat crazy since I was dressing up as a child. I went to a wedding of friends of my parents in Atlanta (Georgia), where I grew up. My mother gave my sister and I matching hats to wear. I loved them. They were very large straw hats with long ribbons around them and hanging down at the back. After that I started collecting old vintage hats and then attempted to make them myself before actually having proper training.

Where and why did you learn millinery?

I went to the Wombourne School of Millinery near Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom.

How long have you been a milliner for? Where else did you work?

I have been a milliner for about half a year, before that I was working in marketing departments in various banks in Amsterdam and Brussels. I could vent some of my creativity there, but it was in my spare time that I would find myself drawing, knitting, sewing and making all sorts of things. Finally I decided to take the plunge and do this – something I really want to do – full time.

Where do you get inspiration for your designs?

Mostly from nature (ducks, shrimp, leaves), but also from regular things that I see. I may look at a pecan, a dinner plate or roof of a house and think, “That would make a great hat!” My hats are out of the ordinary.

What has been your most enjoyable commission?

I was asked to make two identical hats for a photoshoot here in Beijing for a famous Chinese singer named Mimi. They are Yunnan-style rice field worker hats, but red on the inside and white on the outside, plus a hole at the top for the hair to go through.

How would you describe your style of hats?

Not your regular (boring) wedding hat. Mine have something else, either Barbies sitting on the brim or entirely covered in grass. No matter where you go, if you wear one of my hats, people will talk about it!