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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
I was recently invited to conduct a workshop at the Wagga Wagga International Millinery Convention 2012. This is an event held every few years in regional New South Wales in the bustling rural city of Wagga Wagga on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River. The one week forum was organised by a bunch of committed and […]
Selecting this old 5 piece block, I am currently making a 1930’s inspired flat cap from a waxy, open plait panama. I aquired this block from a Sydney firm who, for 100 years made the military and aviation headwear for our men in uniform. By wetting and gently moulding the hat body over the wooden form and leaving it […]
After many years of making top hats for stage and screen productions, I am very familiar with this type of hat. Toppers can take a long time to make by hand, but the results are always rewarding. Hat fittings with the client are required to select the right sillouette and to tweek the style to suit the wearer’s body […]
