In early January 2016 when Sydney was lost in deep summer, Cheryl and I embarked on our first expedition into science fiction headwear for Ridley Scott’s Alien Covenant. Collaborating with costume designer, Janty Yeats and her design team, we were commissioned to create headwear for one segment of the movie. Our primary reference material being the […]
Author Archive | rosie boylan
My house of straw
In the lead up to the summer hat season I fill my studio with a range of straw hats in a myriad of colours, textures and patterns in preparation for designing my new summer styles. I take delight in the variety of fibres, their properties and counties of origin…. then delight again when the right […]
Pacific partnerships in headwear
Rosie shares her hat making skills with Papua New Guinean women Recently I have been fortunate to share my hat making skills with the Bilum weavers of Papua New Guinea (PNG) through the Geneva-based International Trade Centre (ITC) – a United Nations/World Trade Organisation agency focused on trade development, funded by the Australian Government through […]
From the Top – interview with Style.com
“Hats are always important. Full stop,” said costume designer Catherine Martin when asked about the elaborate chapeaux featured in Baz Lurhmann’s The Great Gatsby. “I think that one of the things that defines the period is evening headwear. Hats enhance the characters, create an otherworldliness, and help the audience understand that we’re in a time […]
Rosie Boylan chats to The Living Room Theatre about the Art of Millinery
Rosie Boylan has built an amazing career out of hats. She’s created some of the most beautiful headwear you’ve seen for movies like The Great Gatsby, Australia and Moulin Rouge. Now, Rosie sells her creations from her shop in Newtown and continues to be kept very busy with private commissions. The Living Room Theatre is […]
Interview with Out The Front
I was recently interviewed by Siobhan Toohill for Out The Front, a monthly podcast with a focus on design, sustainability and creativity in Sydney.
Catherine Martin wins Oscar for The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby has had some amazing recognition over the film awards season. Congratulations to Catherine Martin and everyone in her team, it is wonderful to be part of such a creative and innovative group. It has been amazing to see the warmth with which all of the hard work designing and making the costumes […]
‘The Spirit of the Age’ – The Great Gatsby and historical millinery
A recent article in The Atlantic described The Great Gatsby as ‘a fabulous betrayal of 1920s fashion and this got me thinking about an issue at the heart of historical costume design and an ever present tension for those of us who work in this industry – how far should one go to be historically accurate with […]
Prada & Great Gatsby headwear
I have always been intrigued by how design is influenced by the interplay between fashion and film and the recent feature film The Great Gatsby is a hand in glove example of this relationship. The film showcases a collaboration between costume designer Catherine Martin and fashion designer Miuccia Prada with their creation of forty […]
Cabbage Tree Hats
Rosie Boylan, Sydney hat maker, talks about Australia’s first cottage craft, the Cabbage Tree Hat. Woven in Australia by first settlers and convicts to protect themselves from the hot Australian sun, the Cabbage Tree hat became the symbol of the ‘new chums’ of early colonial Sydney. As a milliner for stage and screen, I have […]