Millinery
Studio Secrets

by Estelle Ramousse and Fabienne Gambrelle

      This is a book about making hats; not just about actually making them yourself, but about the author and her studio in Paris. It also immerses you in an all but vanished world of haute couture where the golden age of hats (1850-1950) is celebrated.

The book starts with a brief history of hats and progresses to show the author’s own studio, the tools she uses, some of the fascinating people she works with and more, evoking in a few words and photographs all the glamor and mystery of the fashion world.

I like the way the projects start off with a simple headdress made from cutout flowers, before progressing through caps, a beret, bibi and a wide-brimmed hat. All of these are illustrated with staged photographs and are a good introduction to hat making, although not for somebody who does not already havewithout a good fund of sewing expertise to draw upon. There is a section on making new hats from old hats, or remodelling other items, such as a denim shirt, which gives a taste of this type of activity. A couple more projects would have been great, but as this is normally omitted from other books on millinery, I was impressed that it was there at all.

For the advanced user who also has some space of the right kind, the last section is about making hat frames. Some of the items here will prove elusive, but this is a book with three sections for beginner (to millinery, not to sewing), intermediate and advanced hat makers, and so perhaps pleases everybody to some extent. A good book to have on your shelf if you are at all interested in this subject.