Jane Taylor – United Kingdom

Established in 2003, Jane Taylor London has become synonymous with stylish and elegant hats and headpieces.

Worn by everyone from Beyoncé to Prince Catherine, Jane Taylor Millinery produces stunning ranges of bespoke iconic hats and headpieces.

Jane’s love of sculpture, art & textiles led her to create hats. She secured her embroidery degree at Manchester Art School and went on to study Millinery at Chelsea & Kensington College. She then went on to train with Marie O’Regan, the Queen’s Milliner.

Jane started her business from her childhood home and initially sold it locally. She moved to London in 2007 and grew her empire whilst living on a narrowboat near Kew. Seven years later she successfully launched her boutique on the Kings Road and has just launched an atelier on Walton Street among fashion’s finest establishments.

Her designs are worn by The Royal Family and celebrities in the music and film industry.

Her royal clientele includes Princess Catherine, Zara Tindall, The Countess of Wessex and Princess Eugenie. Indeed, the Countess of Wessex has exclusively worn Jane Taylor’s designs since 2009.

The Duchess of Cambridge has also worn Jane Taylor on numerous occasions; the christenings of all her children, the Diamond Jubilee Service, the Trooping of the Colour, and the tour of the Solomon Isles, Australia, and New Zealand to name but a few.

Empowering the wearer is at the core of what Jane Taylor aspires to do for every client. Jane is acutely aware of the power a hat can give you to express your confidence and elevate your look.

See Jane’s work here: https://janetaylorlondon.com/

LAURA DEL VILLAGIO – United States

Laura Del Villaggio earned a Certificate in Millinery from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in 1999 and her award-winning business, Milli Starr, was established in Austin in 2004. Milli Starr is known for exquisite craftsmanship, sophisticated details, and a vintage-inspired elegance that complements a modern wardrobe. Original hats have been spotted in print and digital publications, on the runway, on stage, and on screen, and at horse races around the world.

Laura possesses over 30 years of experience in fashion history, design, and construction and has worked as a clothing and textile curator and conservator, vintage dealer, fiber arts instructor, retail manager, and theater costume designer, all prior to diving into millinery full-time in 2012.

She enjoys creating hats for clients, as well as teaching both group and private classes to students who travel to Austin from all over North America. Many of her former students now own millinery businesses and/or hat shops.

In 2019, Laura proposed and implemented an 80-hour millinery certificate program for the Continuing Education Department at Austin Community College. She teaches and also serves on the Fashion Design Department Advisory Committee.

Laura is an active Milliners Guild member and currently serving as Treasurer. In 2022, she co-curated the Hats: Humor & High Design exhibition at NorthPark Center, a collaborative project of the Texas Fashion Collection and the Guild featuring 28 hats created by contemporary and historic milliners.

millistarr.com

EDWINA IBBOTSON – United Kingdom

Edwina is one of Britains top Couture milliners, studied millinery at FIT in New York and LCF in London, then private classes with well-known British and French milliners, she built on her Couture millinery skills working for a top London Milliner, and through work experience in Paris.

Founded in 1991, Edwina’s Millinery Business quickly grew to enable her to open her own shop in Battersea London 25 years ago, where she designs and makes everything by hand with a small team of assistants. Since having her shop Edwina has been teaching and sharing her skills with weekly evening classes.

Edwina’s work is bespoke – each piece is totally handmade. She works directly with her clients and their designers to create totally individual one-off pieces to compliment the client’s style, outfit, and the occasion of their special day. Her work is feminine, elegant and glamorous.

Edwina’s Hats can be seen on the heads of some of the very best-dressed Ladies at occasions such as Royal Ascot, The Epsom Derby, The Kentucky Derby, The Kings Garden Parties and all other Social Hat-wearing occasions.
Her hats are regally featured in Fashion magazines including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Tatler.

In 2018 Edwina started designing a line of less Formal wear Hats, including Felt trilbies, fedoras and flat caps, Covid helped Edwina worked on the new line named Hound and Shire, these Quintessentially British designs feature Dog breeds, Horse and Pheasant prints, printed on fur felts and hand blocked in the workroom. The Hound and Shire collection is aimed for the countryside and town dog and horse lovers alike.

Edwina is a founder member of the British Hat Guild, and has had her work displayed in exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), Hat Works Museum in Stockport, and other exhibitions such as Hats Made Me, in Luton.
Alongside fellow milliners Rachel Trevor Morgan and Noel Stewart, Edwina Curates “Unveiled” an exhibition showcasing the high-end crafts of Millinery during London Craft week
www.EdwinaIbbotson.co.uk to see a selection of her work and for more up-to-date styles -Edwina Ibbotson Millinery on Instagram. 

PHILLIP RHODES – Australia

Phillip has made a career from creating original hats across many areas of endeavor. Originally trained through traditional workroom techniques, Phillip’s impeccable finishes and detail are reflected in his fashion millinery.
Working in London for several years with Berman and Nathan costumiers, Phillip expanded into theatrical millinery for the West End theatres, the film industry, and television.

Phillip’s handiwork has been on show in productions Miss Saigon, Les Miserables and Beauty and the Beast in theatres across the globe.

He has also made headwear for national advertising campaigns, television serials and major motion pictures. In London, he made hats for Joan Collins, Kim Cattrall and Joanna Lumley.

Upon returning to Australia, Phillip became head of Millinery with the Australian Ballet, creating the headwear for entire ballets that are still in repertoire, but the call of the wild saw him return to working for himself. He has since made hats for shows such as Sunset Boulevard, Sisterella, Moonshadow, and Eureka, and the Singapore Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty, and Queensland Ballet’s Cinderella.
Since 2018, whilst creating hats for his regular clientele and achieving 100% sell-through with his popular wholesale range for iconic Melbourne department store, Myer, Phillip ventured forth on an exhausting coterie of theatrical projects.

For the Australian Ballet, Phillip was responsible for realizing the original design concept of over 60 hats and headpieces for The Happy Prince. He also recreated items of headwear for existing productions of Cinderella, Coppelia, The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland and Nutcracker. Phillip also made hats for mainstage productions of Barnum, Muriel’s Wedding, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Ragtime. The Victorian Opera commissioned Phillip to make a suite of glistening headdresses for Wagner’s Parsifal, folk headdresses for Rossini’s William Tell, sweeping Edwardian glamour for Sondheim’s A Little Night Music and high fashion headpieces for a new production Lorelei by Julian Langdon.

For his ‘home base’ Melbourne Theatre Company where Phillip is house milliner, a big year of ‘hatty’ shows meant a busy time. Phillip made hats for the Twelfth Night, Lady in the Van, Arbus and West, Kiss of the Spiderwoman and a monumental workload for a staged version of Shakespeare in Love ( for which the 95-hour working weeks nearly killed him).

To see Phillip’s work visit his website, http://www.philliprhodes.com.au/collections.html

BILIANA BORISSOVA  – Spain

Biliana is a renowned milliner from Madrid, Spain. She is known for her exquisite leather and fabric creations as well as her custom blocks. 
Biliana’s interest in millinery began about 15 years ago when she was still dedicated to her archaeologist profession, having a position as director of important archaeological excavations in the area of Madrid, but her passion for creating hats was such, that in 2010, Biliana decided to leave archeology and dedicate herself to be a full-time milliner.
Biliana has extensive experience as a teacher, having trained most of the current milliners in Spain, some of them dedicating themselves to designing hats at very high levels.
She has also taught classes at Lina Stein’s Millinery School, Westport, Ireland 2015, at the International Millinery Forum, Wagga Wagga, Australia 2016 and at Millinery Meet Up, Gatlinburg, USA, 2016.

Biliana has collaborated in more than 30 shows at Fashion Week Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York, and since 2018 she has been the main collaborator in millinery for the luxury brand Loewe, Paris.

During her millinery career, Biliana has also worked in film and theater, most notably, her work on Isabel Coixet’s film “Nobody Wants the Night”, whose main protagonist, the great French actress, Juliette Binoche, wore my hats, based on the 1910s. The film was highlighted with 4 Goya Awards 2016, one of them for Best Costumes. In 2021, Biliana collaborated on the short film “Retales”, which won the Miglior Costumista award at the Italian festival “Inventa un Film”. The hats were based on 1940s fashion. And by the end of this year, a Disney+ biopic about the great maestro, Cristobal Balenciaga, will be released in which Biliana made more than 50, very difficult hats, which accompany the most emblematic designs of the “father” of Haute Couture. The costume designer, Bina Daigeler, has an Oscar nomination for her work in “Mulan”. Biliana is currently working on a Netflix project based on 1870s fashion.
http://www.bilianaborissova.com/  

MELA HOYT-HEYDON – United States

Mela started her millinery journey in 1980, interning for theatrical milliner Lloyd Lambert. While at graduate school for costume design, her first work was on Vegas style headpieces for the Tropicana in Puerto Rico. However, her passion has always been for historical hats. She created historical millinery for the entertainment industry between productions while working as a union costume designer and teaching costuming at several universities and colleges.

Some of Mela’s work can be seen in such films as Titanic, Emma, Comanche Moon, Bolden, and Dangerous Liaisons.

Mela became a full-time professor of theatre in 1991, heading up the Costume Design and Construction Program at Fullerton College, while she continued designing for the entertainment industry. When she became Chairman of the Theatre Arts Department, she tapered off her outside design work and focused on historical millinery including taking a sabbatical to study with Rose Corey.

In 2016 she opened Atelier Mela, a full-service millinery retail shop and workshop space in Fullerton, California, the first time her work was available to the public. With major projects for Walt Disney Imagineering (Shanghai Disney-costuming and millinery and Tokyo Disney-18th century millinery and props and a steady stream of modern and period hat customers, Mela retired from Fullerton College in 2017 to concentrate on the shop and teach millinery.
In 2020, Atelier Mela moved to Salem, Oregon where the shop is now open in the old Thomas Kaye Woolen Mill and part of the Willamette Heritage Center. Mela continues to design and create for Walt Disney Imagineering, having just completed the costumes and hats for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad in Disneyland and over 100 items for the new Fantasy Springs being built at Tokyo Sea in Japan.

To see Mela’s work visit her website:
https://ateliermela.net

BRIDGET BAILEY– England

Bridget Bailey is a well-known name in Millinery Fashion and Textile design. She began producing millinery collections in 1984 for clients such as Jean Muir and Saks Fifth Avenue. She has also created pleated scarves for Liberty, and jewelry collections for The Victoria and Albert Museum and others. She has a degree in textiles and is also trained by milliner Rose Cory. In addition to her custom millinery work, Bridget’s is exploring the freedom in creating “millinery art” and has been featured at exhibitions ranging from The Philadelphia Museum of Art Fair, to Crafted – Makers of the Exceptional at The Royal Academy and Mad for Tea at Fortnum and Mason.
To view some of Bridget’s latest collections: 
https://bridgetbailey.co.uk/gallery/
In the last 10 years, Bridget has focused on teaching millinery skills to share her self-discovered and perfected techniques with the millinery world.

GALINA KOFOD – Australia

Originally from Russia, Galina now works and lives in Australia and is known for the techniques she has developed in flower making.
Her journey began working with leather and gems in the creation of jewelry. After extensive study of silk flower making with the Japanese Somebana school, Galina created her own method of using leather in the creation of flowers, achieving a perfect reflection of nature.
Galina’s latest innovation is using EVA foam in flower making for millinery. Having taught her techniques all over the world, we are excited to have her join us at MMU 2018.
To view her exquisite work visit http://www.galelina.com.au

DIRK-JAN KORTSCHOT & MARCEL DE LEEUW – De Hoedenmaker – The Netherlands

Introducing Dirk-Jan & Marcel of De Hoedenmaker (the Hatter). Dirk-Jan began his millinery career in 1992 and joined forces with Marcel in 2010 to form De Hoedenmaker. The visual design skills of Marcel adds the spark to explode their creativity together. 1+1=3!!
They deliver high quality pieces to individual clients, make hats for Victor & Rolf, and have a men’s collection debuting in January 2018.
Their many awards include first place Creativity Award International Hat Design competition in Beijing, China and three times a finalist inHat Designer of the Year in London, England.www.dehoedenmaker.nl

LOUISE MACDONALD – Australia

MMU 2018 welcomes Louise Macdonald from Melbourne Australia! Louise is one of Australia’s leading millinery educators drawing upon her millinery training in the UK and her vast experience. While in London, Louise worked as a theatrical milliner for BBC costume dramas and films before transitioning to fashion millinery.
Louise’s millinery business offers bespoke as well as ready-to-wear exquisite creations. The Spring racing Carnival is a major focus and Louise has created a spring range for Hugo Boss stores in Melbourne for the last 12 years!
You can see more of Louise Macdonald Milliner’s designs on her website www.millinery.com.au

PHILLIP RHODES – Australia

We welcome Phillip Rhodes from Australia to our line-up of superb millinery tutors! Phillip has made a career from creating original hats across many areas of endeavour. Originally trained through traditional workroom techniques, Phillip’s impeccable finishes and detail are reflected in his fashion millinery.
Working in London for several years with Berman and Nathan costumiers, Phillip expanded into theatrical millinery for the West End theatres, the film industry, and television.
Phillip’s handiwork has been on show in productions Miss Saigon, Les Miserables and Beauty and the Beast in theatres across the globe. He has also made headwear for national advertising campaigns, television serials and major motion pictures. In London, he made hats for Joan Collins, Kim Cattrall and Joanna Lumley.
Upon returning to Australia, Phillip became head of Millinery with the Australian Ballet, creating the headwear for entire ballets that are still in repertoire, but the call of the wild saw him return to working for himself. He has since made hats for shows such as Sunset Boulevard, Sisterella, Moonshadow, and Eureka, and for the Singapore Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty, and Queensland Balllet’s Cinderella.
Phillip is the Head Milliner for the Melbourne Theatre Company and the Victorian Opera. He also creates bespoke millinery for the fashionable Australian racing season.
To see Phillip’s work visit his website, 
http://www.philliprhodes.com.au/collections.html

LINA STEIN – Ireland

Originally from Australia, Milliner Lina Stein has been based in Westport, Ireland for many years. For more than two decades she has been creating amazing hats and is recognized as a leading light in the international world of Millinery. Through the flamboyant and extravagant creations, her presence signals an explosive dynamic that is diverse and exposes her to new experiences, people and places.

Lina began sharing her creative mind and millinery experience with other milliners and “hat enthusiasts” from all over the world. Lina has been a guest tutor at the International Millinery Forum in Australia, the 2014 Millinery Meet-up and countless other workshops around the world. Her Masterclasses held in Westport are a sought-after seat!

http://www.linasteinmillinery.com

LAURA WHITLOCK – United States

Laura Whitlock fell in love with millinery as a student of costume design. There was something about the sculptural nature and human scale of hats that she found endlessly appealing.  A week after earning her bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts from The University of Northern Iowa, she left her beloved home state to pursue her career. Laura worked as a milliner and costume crafts artisan in theaters including San Diego’s Old Globe, The La Jolla Playhouse and The Denver Center.  Eventually, she settled in Chicago, where she has completed projects for organizations including Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Steppenwolf and The Lyric Opera. Her work has appeared in films including My Best Friend’s Wedding and A League of Their Own. She has also created wide-ranging industrial projects-from Cap’n Crunch costumes to elf hats to human-sized Cheerios for clients including Quaker Oats, General Mills, Royal Caribbean, and Keebler. 2017 marked Laura’s 30th year of making hats.
Laura eventually felt the need to realize her designs for non-fictional human beings, so she formed her own line of couture hats, Laura Whitlock Millinery. Her hats have found a life of their own, becoming client favorites and traveling to every major horse racing event in the world, including The Kentucky Derby, The Melbourne Cup and The Dubai World Cup. She founding member of The Millinery Arts Alliance, Chicago’s award-winning organization of professional milliners. Lark Millinery is Laura’s newest venture, created for innovative collective boutique, Union Handmade. Her Lark collection includes practical, wearable yet inspired hats. Her current work can be seen athttps://www.facebook.com/LauraWhitlockMillinery/
Over her years in the field, Laura has also become a passionate teacher of millinery. She provides instruction in a wide range of hat making techniques at Judith M Studio in LaGrange, Indiana and in the Costume Technology Department at The Theatre School of DePaul University. She has presented classes in making historical hats for organizations including The Jane Austen Society of North America and The Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village. In 2016, Laura was honored to be chosen as one of only eight tutors for Millinery Meet-up, the premier millinery educational event in the United States at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

BILIANA BORISSOVA  – Spain

Biliana Borissova is a renowned milliner from Madrid, Spain. She is known for her exquisite leather and fabric creations as well as custom blocks. She has collaborated with many Spanish fashion designers for Mercedes- Benz Fashion Weeks. Her work can be also admired on the big screen – recently on the head of Juliette Binoche in Endless Night (No one wants the night). Biliana also teaches millinery internationally – across Europe, Australia, and the United States.

http://www.bilianaborissova.com/

ROSE HUDSON – Australia

Rose has over thirty-five years of millinery experience in TV, film, opera, ballet and having her work exhibited in the National Gallery of Victoria and Flinders University in South Australia. In her Rose Hudson Millinery atelier, she has created headwear (in between others) for Essie Davis in ABC TV’s Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Kate Winslet and the cast of The Dressmaker (2015), The Australian Ballet’s production of The Sleeping Beauty (2015).
Rose is the owner of The Very Very Very Strict School of Millinery, where she teaches her students traditional skills of hand blocking and sewing. She also teaches theatrical millinery at Melbourne Polytechnic.
Rose presided over Millinery Association of Australia between 2016 and 2018,  overseeing the operations of this not for profit organization to encourage hat-wearing for aesthetic and sun protection purposes, to maintain high standards of millinery manufacture in Australia and to promote friendship and cooperation among industry members.

Read more at https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/strictly-transformative-20111222-1p6ps.html

EDWINA IBBOTSON – United Kingdom

Edwina is one of Britains top Couture milliners, Studying Millinery at FIT in New York and LCF in London, and private classes with well known British and French milliners, she built on her Couture millinery skills working for a top London Milliner, and through work experience in Paris. 
Founded in 1991, Edwina’s Millinery Business quickly grew to enable her to open her own shop in Battersea London almost 20 years ago, where she has been teaching and sharing her skills.
Edwina’s work is bespoke each piece is totally hand made. She works directly with her clients and their designers to create totally individual one-off pieces to compliment the client’s style, outfit, and the occasion of their special day. Her work is feminine, elegant and glamorous. The most important part of the hat to her is the silhouette, and each piece is designed to look beautiful from all angles. All her works are a labour of Love.
www.EdwinaIbbotson.co.uk to see a selection of her work

EUGENIE van OIRSCHOT – The Netherlands

Eugenie van Oirschot designs and makes hats which are architectural masterpieces, they are mathematical in their constructions and extremely clever in their design. She has developed a style of headwear that is unique; the cut of the fabric, the use of color and geometric themes give each hat an interesting story.
Each individual piece can be rightly called a work of Art.

Eugenie was born in The Netherlands and throughout her childhood watched her mother on the sewing machine constantly learning all the old techniques.
Following her formal education, she studied fashion design and in 1993 she started her own fashion label: L’une par Eugenie. After a couple of years, she discovered that the refined techniques that she had in mind, were not always suitable for clothing so she started to design hats and it was then that Eugenie discovered her real passion and fell in love with millinery.

A whole new world opened and because of the innovative design concepts and remarkable fabric developments, her creations won several awards. Eugenie’s hats have been exhibit all over Europe and are published in lots of magazines. 

Her teaching career started when she was invited to work in a studio on the property of the Dutch textile museum where she organized workshops to share her skills. Eugenie has been invited several times by the International Millinery Forum and the Context Art Forum in Australia and she also taught twice at the Millinery-Meet-Up in America. 
Nowadays she travels and teaches all over the world.

JANE STODDART – Australia

Jane has been one of Sydney’s leading couture milliners for 30 years and has taught millinery through workshops, design colleges, millinery conventions and TAFE for over 15 years. 

Jane made her first hats in London in early eighties for a friend who was studying fashion at the prestigious Central St Martins school. She returned to Sydney and worked with long-established milliner Lois Easton Graham for two years, mastering traditional model millinery techniques.

She established her business in 1985 and was immediately approached by department store buyers. After selling her hats through stores she opened retail premises of her own. Many will remember her beautiful shopfront in Paddington’s William Street, where she stayed for 8 years.

Jane’s hats are clean and restrained, preoccupied with form and line, and often accented with strong, contemporary trims. Colour palette is subtle but interesting. Quality of materials and finish are immaculate.

LINA STEIN – Ireland

Originally from Australia, Milliner Lina Stein has been based in Westport, Ireland for many years. For more than two decades she has been creating amazing hats and is recognized as a leading light in the international world of Millinery. Through the flamboyant and extravagant creations, her presence signals an explosive dynamic that is diverse and exposes her to new experiences, people and places.

Lina began sharing her creative mind and millinery experience with other milliners and “hat enthusiasts” from all over the world. Lina has been a guest tutor at the International Millinery Forum in Australia, the 2014 Millinery Meet-up and countless other workshops around the world. Her Masterclasses held in Westport are a sought-after seat!

http://www.linasteinmillinery.com

WAYNE WICHERN – United States

Wayne Wichern’s millinery design and teaching career evolved out of his experiences as a floral designer, classical ballet dancer and his interest in fashion and costume design. Wayne grew up on a farm in Cody, Wyoming. The development of his professional talents as a celebrated hat designer are apparent when following the winding path of creative and artistic endeavors pursuits he has mastered. Beginning as a floral designer in Seattle, then locating to New York City to pursue dance as a classical ballet dancer. The gradual evolution of an interest in fashion and costume design precipitated a return to Seattle where work in theater costuming and retail store and window display eventually transformed into his now 34-year millinery design and teaching career.

Wayne’s elegant hats have sold in such fine stores as Barneys NY and Nordstrom. He has created hats for theater productions of the Belfry Theater in Victoria, BC, Art Club Theater, Vancouver, BC, San Francisco Ballet, Seattle Repertory Theater, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. His innovative hat designs are in collections of the de Young Museum in San Francisco and the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, WA. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, Women’s Wear Daily, Victoria Magazine, and Fiberarts Design Book Six. Wayne is a skilled teacher who continually works to inspire and encourage students to pursue their interests in professional design careers

EUGENIE van OIRSCHOT – The Netherlands

Eugenie van Oirschot designs and makes hats which are architectural masterpieces, they are mathematical in their constructions and extremely clever in their design. She has developed a style of headwear that is unique; the cut of the fabric, the use of color and geometric themes give each hat an interesting story.
Each individual piece can be rightly called a work of Art.

Eugenie was born in The Netherlands and throughout her childhood watched her mother on the sewing machine constantly learning all the old techniques.
Following her formal education, she studied fashion design and in 1993 she started her own fashion label: L’une par Eugenie. After a couple of years, she discovered that the refined techniques that she had in mind, were not always suitable for clothing so she started to design hats and it was then that Eugenie discovered her real passion and fell in love with millinery.

A whole new world opened and because of the innovative design concepts and remarkable fabric developments, her creations won several awards. Eugenie’s hats have been exhibited all over Europe and are published in lots of magazines. 

Her teaching career started when she was invited to work in a studio on the property of the Dutch Textile Museum where she organized workshops to share her skills. Eugenie has been invited several times by the International Millinery Forum and the Context Art Forum in Australia and she also taught twice at the Millinery-Meet-Up in America. 
Nowadays she travels and teaches all over the world.

LINA STEIN – Ireland

Originally from Australia, Milliner Lina Stein has been based in Westport, Ireland for many years. For more than two decades she has been creating amazing hats and is recognized as a leading light in the international world of Millinery. Through her flamboyant and extravagant creations, her presence signals an explosive dynamic that is diverse and exposes her to new experiences, people and places.

Lina began sharing her creative mind and millinery experience with other milliners and “hat enthusiasts” from all over the world. Lina has been a guest tutor at the International Millinery Forum in Australia, the 2014 Millinery Meet-up and countless other workshops around the world. Her Masterclasses held in Westport are a sought-after seat!

http://www.linasteinmillinery.com

DARIA WHEATLEY – United States

Daria Wheatley is a millinery artist and artisan of long-standing. She learned the basics of hat-making in the Drama department of the University of Washington in Seattle, where she adapted her skills in textiles to costuming. For ten years she plied the trade of theater costumer as a designer and technician, working in a wide range of theaters and theater disciplines before moving back to the Northwest. By the greatest good luck, she fell in with a band of milliners, which eventually grew to be the Millinery Artisan Guild and in that atmosphere of cooperation and friendly competition, honed her skills and sensibilities to become an award-winning milliner and a teacher of millinery.

Daria sells in fine boutiques and has her work shown in galleries and museums up and down the West Coast, as well as in Chicago, including Gallery Fraga, Mindscape Gallery, the Bellevue Art Museum, Copia, the De Young Museum, and the Nordic Heritage Museum. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Fine Arts de Young Museum in San Francisco.

WAYNE WICHERN – United States

Wayne Wichern’s millinery design and teaching career evolved out of his experiences as a floral designer, classical ballet dancer and his interest in fashion and costume design. Wayne grew up on a farm in Cody, Wyoming. The development of his professional talents as a celebrated hat designer is apparent when following the winding path of creative and artistic endeavors pursuits he has mastered. Beginning as a floral designer in Seattle, then relocating to New York City to pursue dance as a classical ballet dancer. The gradual evolution of an interest in fashion and costume design precipitated a return to Seattle where work in theater costuming and retail store and window display eventually transformed into his now 34-year millinery design and teaching career.

Wayne’s elegant hats have sold in such fine stores as Barneys NY and Nordstrom. He has created hats for theater productions of the Belfry Theater in Victoria, BC, Art Club Theater, Vancouver, BC, San Francisco Ballet, Seattle Repertory Theater, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. His innovative hat designs are in collections of the de Young Museum in San Francisco and the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, WA. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, Women’s Wear Daily, Victoria Magazine, and Fiberarts Design Book Six. Wayne is a skilled teacher who continually works to inspire and encourage students to pursue their interests in professional design careers