What Does a Milliner Do

A milliner designs and makes hats and headpieces by hand. The word covers a trade rather than a job title, and the work is closer to sculpture than to dressmaking. Cloth is cut flat and sewn. A hat is built in three dimensions around a shape that has to sit on a particular head.

What the work actually involves

A milliner draws the piece, chooses the material, blocks it, wires and edges it, trims it and finishes it. Blocking means shaping damp straw or felt over a wooden form and leaving it to dry hard. The block gives the crown its shape. Everything after that is done by hand with needle and thread.

Milliner, hatter or designer

A hatter traditionally makes men's hats, a milliner makes women's, and the line has largely gone. A designer may draw a hat and send it out to be made. A milliner does both. In a couture house the person who draws the piece is the person who blocks it.

Where a milliner works

Most work from an atelier rather than a shop, with blocks on the walls, a steamer, and shelves of parasisal straw, felt, sinamay and horsehair. Fittings happen there or at the client's address.

How long it takes to become one

There is no shortcut. Blocking, wiring and hand finishing take years to do well. Monika Perlińska has around thirty-five years at the craft, about five of them in Philip Treacy's London atelier and around seven as head milliner at Jane Taylor, before founding Maria Monica London.

Does anyone still commission hats

Yes. Royal Ascot, weddings, the races and formal occasions keep the trade alive in Britain, and a hat made to one head fits in a way a bought one cannot. If you want a piece drawn for you, that is a bespoke commission.