Rodney Gordon has a long-standing career in millinery creating hats, headpieces and masks for theatre and Broadway.When he was a young boy, he asked his mother to teach him to sew. By the time he was eight, he’d sewn his first shirt for himself.

He got hooked on opera thanks to his sister who introduced him to the art. Rodney attended the University of Texas at Austin’s Theatre and Dance program in the College of Fine Arts, graduating with a BFA in 1975. He apprenticed with the Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera and San Francisco Opera, and, with the help of his uncle Edward Haynes, went to work with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York. In 1980, he opened his own shop where he and his staff continued to create hats, headdresses, masks, jewellery and armour for theatre, film and opera. Here are some of the hundreds of shows that feature his work.

Rodney found a home alongside Sally Ann Parsons’s Parsons Meares Ltd in Long Island City.  When we spoke with Rodney he was in the process of moving his workroom into a home studio in Brooklyn.

The credits for his millinery and masks include Kinky Boots, Wicked Book of Mormon, Mary Poppins, Alladin, A Chorus Line, Hamilton, The Front Page, Holiday Inn, The Importance of Being Ernest, The Little Mermaid, Curtains, On the Twentieth Century,  The Producers, The Coast of Utopia, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, The Red Shoes, The Drowsy Chaperone, On a Clear Day, Into the Woods, On the Town Showboat, Shrek, the Musical A Christmas Carol Ever After, The Music Man , Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Young Frankenstein, Sweet Charity, The Lion King, Titanic, 1776 Once Upon a Mattress, The King and I,  A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Ragtime Barrymore, Showboat Kiss of the Spiderwoman, The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, The Capeman Victor, Victoria Crazy for You Cats, Lettice & Lovage, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Sunset Boulevard, Carousel Mule Bone BIG, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying A, Christmas Carol, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Pier, The Life Jekyll and Hyde, The Will Rogers Follies, The Red Shoes Jelly’s Last Jam, The Goodbye Girl, Anything Goes, London Assurance, She Loves Me, The Showoff, The Visit, The Scarlet Pimpernel Conversations with My Father, A Streetcar Named Desire, Shogun Singin’ in the Rain

Janet Linville began her millinery career in 1979, when she started working on the Casino shows in Atlantic City. From there she went on to work for Woody Shelp, The Santa Fe Opera and in 1997 took on the role of milliner at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Originally studying Home Economics, Clothing and Textiles Janet completed a BA in Theater before finding her way into industry.  She began making hats after landing a costume job in Atlantic City before moving to New York in 1982. She began teaching fashion millinery at the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1987.  The course was founded by Anne Albrizio and she got Janet involved in the teaching team.

While working freelance from her own studio Janet made has for movies including My Best Friend’s Wedding, the Big Apple Circus and Broadway shows which included Lion King, Miss Saigon, Beauty and the Beast.   In 1997 she had the opportunity to take on the role of the in-house milliner at the MET Opera. For this work, she has created pieces for iconic shows that have graced the New York stage including pieces that have been set on fire, dumped in water and thrown across the stage.

In 2022 Janet retired from her role at the MET however continues her role teaching at FIT.

Rebecca Read is the Milliner for Opera Australia.  She is based in their Sydney workroom and constructs pieces for their various productions.  The projects she undertakes can be wild and wonderful and involve transforming a designers sketch into reality.

She studied at Charles Stuart University before moving to England where she graduate from Kensington and Chelsea College. During her time in London Rebecca went on to work for Bridget Bailey, Noel Stewart Stephen Jones and Misa Harada.

After returning to Australia she eventually met Catherine Kelly and spent time in her Sydney Millinery Studio before taking up the role at Opera Australia.  In her nearly 10 years with the company she has produced pieces for the Julie Taymor’s The Magic Flute and My Fair Lady which was direct by Julie Andrews.