◆ What is Couture Millinery? ◆
Although the French word Couture literally translates as sewing it has come to mean creating and selling custom-made, high-fashion women’s attire. Since Millinery historically refers to the making of women’s hats, (hatters or hat-makers made men’s hats) Couture Millinery brings the aspect of high-end and skillyfully handmade into that picture.
Milliners and hatters employed different techniques, usually due to the difference in the materials used for men’s vs women’s hats, but in these pages Milliner means someone who uses traditional millinery and hatter’s techniques, rather than being someone who makes hats only for women. Even though history loves to segregate skilled trades, gender limitations on fashion attire belong firmly in the past.
To be considered couture millinery, hats should meet high standards in quality of construction; stitching should be hand-done and either very neat or invisible. Edges and surfaces should be smooth and finished. Trims should appear as if they just magically rest in the perfect spot and should never be glued in place. The hat should be graceful from all angles. Each headpiece should be sturdy but look weightless and effortless to wear. The inside should be as beautiful as the outside.
Naturally, such high construction standards require extensive training, skill, and time to create.
◆ What is Custom Bespoke? ◆
When combined, the words Custom (as in custom made) and Bespoke indiciate an item that was specifically hand-made for one particular customer to meet that person’s individually requested specifications and desires. A hat can be couture, by being handmade and meeting high construction standards, but unless it was made to the specific requirements of one person, it is neither custom, or bespoke.
Bespoke is a term often used with men’s tailoring. The customer would come to the tailor’s shop and choose the cloth for his suit, at which point that cloth was spoken for, or bespoke. A hadmade, custom bespoke hat is a treasure, especially in these days of mass-produced fast fashion. It is the ultimate in luxury attire, made with the highest quality specialty materials sourced from all over the world: feather butterflies from Australia, ostrich quills from South Africa, sinamay and silk abaca from the Phillipenes, wool and fur felts from Poland or the Czech republic, espaterie from Japan, panama straws from Ecuador, and fancy straw braids from Switzerland.
Even with millinery materials being so scare and costly it is the craftsmanship and creativity of the milliner that makes each couture hat a rare wonder of modern sculpture, design, and art.
Nothing makes a special occasion more special or a look more put-together
than a one-of-a-kind, custom-made, couture hat.
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