We were lucky enough to get the opportunity to welcome and teach to make her very own headpiece, author, stylist and style influencer Alicia Healey from The Lady’s Maid to our hatshop and studio in Farnham to give her an insight into the creative side of the world of millinery.
Alicia certainly already knows a thing or two about hats, specifically the styling of hats with outfits and how to wear hats, having previously worked as a Lady’s maid in the royal household, she published her first book Wardrobe Wisdom last year, the ultimate guide of how to dress and take care of your clothes, filled with styling advice, dress code formalities for all events, how to organise your clothes and pack like a pro, what ever the occasion if it includes clothes Alicia has your back with this book!
Alongside she has also started and incredibly successful blog and Instagram page offering styling advice for all occasions. With a focus on classic styling and formal wear, if you are looking for outfit inspiration for the big events in your life, it’s definitely worth checking her out!
With a strong focus on British designers her classic styling ideas will suit any mother of the bride or groom, a day out at the races such as Royal ascot or a trip to the palace for an investiture. Let her introduce you to amazing new brands and inspire you for your next special events.
Alicia has featured our bespoke millinery on her instagram daily styling posts several times previously and were thrilled when we were able to arrange a day for her to come and join us for her own millinery workshop to make her very own hat.
Although Alicia totally understands styling of hats and balance of a hat she didn’t know much about the creative millinery process, so it was over to us to teach her all about the magical world of millinery behind the scenes of the beautiful works of art that adorn peoples heads.
We knew Alicia would be very discerning in what she would want to make, we already knew she had a penchant for burgundy, so we ensured we had some burgundy fabric available, and like we thought burgundy was exactly what she choose!
We spent some time looking through the shop, looking at various different shapes and styles before settling on a teardrop shape.
Once decide on the shape we started on the making process, from choosing the shape and blocking the felt to deciding on trimmings, Alicia selected a gorgeous array of roses and we added tweed and felt leaves to that we made and created a beautiful vine. Once the hat was wired and bound she added the floral vine to our base.
Alicia totally nailed, style and elegance in her hat with a perfect balance of material and colours and made this beautiful headpiece! Not bad for a first attempt at millinery don’t you think?!
Alicia Wearing her finished hat
The next day as ever, we looked out on her Instagram page to see how she would style her new hat and she didn’t disappoint! Beautiful styling as always!
Thank you for coming Alicia! It was so lovely to meet you and you made a perfect hat and were a pleasure to teach!
If you would like to make your own hat or fascinator just like Alicia did you can find out all about our millinery workshops in Surrey here: https://beverleyedmondsonmillinery.co.uk/whats-on/millinery-workshops/
Alternatively you can let us do the hard work and we can make one for you!
Beverley x