Millinery Meetup 2024 Competition “Sci-Fi – hats for the Future”

LOST IN SPACE

The concept for my headpiece “Lost in Space’ was a journey through space to the frozen planets of Jupiter and Uranus. Lost in Space was my millinery submission for the September 2024 Millinery Meet Up of the North American Millinery Group in Gatlinburg Tennessee.

Whilst the overall inspiration for my headpiece is the imagery of the rings around the planet, I also imagined other interpretations. Overlaying this is the concept of space travel through the galaxy, the influence of the imagery in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001 A Space Odyssey”.

Finally, I thought of a futuristic re-imagining of astronauts’ visors and communication aids, imagining that the iridescent visor could also be an optical aid for seeing into the universe, and receiving information sublimely via receptors located in the silver halo of the headpiece

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Design: Lost in Space
Model: Kelan Ross, Asheville, Tenn.
Photographer: Ruslan Tumash
Milliner: Margaret Woodliff Wright
Location: Asheville – Flat Iron Square
Winner: MMU 2024 – The People’s Choice (students’ vote)
Winner: MMU 2024 – Overall Second Place – awarded for outstanding design, functionality and craftsmanship (tutors’ vote)

How the concept for Lost in Space developed

It was during the summer of 2024 when I had already made several couture headpieces featuring various wrapping techniques, using recycled wool ribbon, that Meg Fletcher, a young local designer suggested a collaboration.

Meg was launching a cutting-edge fashion collection to showcase her design work was featuring various local themes she had created for the collection. The main inspiration was the rural environment of our county of North Northumberland. Meg who was keen to work with local creative talent for her collection “Home Ground” commissioned me to create two headpieces for the collection. She also worked closely with our blacksmith, a fine artist and a young jewellery designer.

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Design: Dark Shadow Horn Headpiece
Model – Bex Masters
Photographer – Jack Heron
Collection designer – Meg Fletcher
Milliner – Margaret Woodliff Wright

Coincidentally Meg’s headpiece concept for her collection also featured a “wrapping technique” over a slim crown inspired horn-like structure. Once I had created a prototype, together we made the final adjustments to the design. The final commission was for two contrasting elongated horned headpieces wrapped in recycled wool ribbon that I had already sourced, both pieces feature contemporary halo styles.

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Design: Light Shadow Horn Headpiece
Model: Felicity Rose
Photographer: Jack Heron
Collection designer: Meg Fletcher
Milliner: Margaret Woodliff Wright

The Shadow headpiece collection was launched at a stunning evening show accompanied by live mediaeval music set in the Inner Bailey of Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, in mid-August 2024. Alnwick Castle, the seat of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, has been the location used in many film shoots including Downton Abbey and several of the Harry Potter films.

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Design: Shredded Denim and Vintage Rosary Horn Headpiece
Photographer & Milliner: Margaret Woodliff Wright

Appreciating the various potential interpretations of the design I created another option – this was a somewhat softer version wrapped in recycled shredded denim, and wore this version to the launch of the Home Ground. I’m pictured here at Meg’s launch show at Alnwick Castle with Bex Masters; The Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland, Dr Caroline Pryer, and Carol Wallace, all four of us are wearing head pieces I have created.

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Photographer: Simon Wright
Milliner: Margaret Woodliff Wright
Location: The Guest Hall, Alnwick Castle

Designing and making my MMU submission – Lost in Space

When thinking about the sources of inspiration for a sci-fi inspired headpiece for the Millinery Meet Up competition, I felt that some of the techniques I had used earlier in the season for the Shadow headpieces might be a useful progression for the “wrapped” theme featured in the Shadow collection.

This time I created a fluid open ended garland that aims to excite your imagination! The essence of the concept is space travel through the universe to a distant planet playfully emphasised by the use of the graduated wrapped technique around the garland, suggesting the rotating route taken by a space capsule to reach the distant destination of the Frozen Planet.

Another interpretation is that the garland is a communication mechanism for receiving instructions from the “mothercraft” delivered via the halo to the astronaut, who also wears a reflective protective visor giving 4D vision.

Finally, there was a competition requirement to include a recycled element for the millinery competition. Using shredded plastic water bottles and vintage wooden rosary beads, I featured three of the twenty-eight moons of Uranus, the Frozen Planet. The moons appear to spin atmospherically through the universe symbolised by the halo, the shredded bottles creating dramatic vapour trails around the vintage beads, which have now become the planet’s moons.

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Model: Kelan Ross, Asheville, Tenn.
Photographer: Ruslan Tumash
Milliner: Margaret Woodliff Wright
Location: Asheville – Flat Iron Square

Inspired by the “cool” imagery of The Frozen Planet concept I decided to use a neutral palette uniting the various threads of my sci-fi concept. Like the earlier wrapped pieces, the basic materials used were sparterie (a vintage form of millinery buckram) millinery wire, wadding, fleece, and tarlatan; these were overlaid with stretch glitter fabric, and then finished with crin, re-cycled plastic bottles, and vintage rosary beads. Making Lost in Space with all its various processes including the experimentation involved with creating the shaped visor, took about four days.

My background

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Design: Summertime – Dior inspired
Model: Glenise Burrell
H&MU: U Salon at The Park
Photographer: Phil Punton
Milliner: Margaret Woodliff Wright

In some senses the creation of the wrapped collection and especially, Lost in Space, bridges various strands of my creative life. Having originally trained as an art teacher, it was my fabric obsession that drew me to retail buying.

After training at Selfridges, London W1, my earlier career was as a buyer for the UK group of Fenwick Department stores where I was able to apply my lifelong interest in colour, design, texture, fashion and trend and frankly what has been a lifelong obsession, fabric! Having revelled in textile arts at school, I then rather neglected the creative aspect of my life, plunging into the commercial world and forging a living as a retail buyer.

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Design: Heald – a make do and mend/recycling project for International Wool Week
Model: Jemima Robinson
Photographer: Karen Rangeley
Milliner: Margaret Woodliff Wright

Introduced quite by chance through my work to the world of millinery and the various creative artforms involved in the fabrication of hats and headpieces, I became entranced by the multi-faceted nature of the craft of millinery.

After initially dabbling by taking short courses, I was lucky enough to be accepted onto an HNC course at Leeds Arts University, where I graduated with High Distinctions in Model Millinery in 2013. Recycling and upcycling of materials have long been an interest of mine and I love the challenge of being able to create a cutting-edge hat or headpiece from waste materials, as seen in this example “Heald”

The sources of millinery motivation

When it comes to design inspiration and motivation my starting point resonates with the mantra of Philip Tracey who said “How a hat makes you feel is what a hat is all about”. My aim is to have happy confident hat wearing clients!

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Design: Glenise – tonal silk rose with beaded centre
Model: Glenise Burrell
Photographer: Phil Punton
H&MU: U Salon at The Park
Milliner: Margaret Woodliff Wright

I have been creating hats and headpieces commissioned by my clients since 2015. I love making pieces that reflect and enhance their outfits, the occasion, the season, fashion trends and most importantly their personality. To do so, I draw creative inspiration from our beautiful surroundings – we live rurally close to the Northumberland Coast, located about an hour from Edinburgh and three hours from London.

Our region is one of characterised by a beautiful coastline, spectacular castles and wonderful rolling open countryside. It’s full of history – noted for Hadrian’s Wall, the birth of Christianity in England on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, and the castles built though the Middle Ages and onwards to protect the area from our marauding Scottish neighbours. Most recently of course the dramatic felling of the tree at Sycamore Gap on Hadrian’s Wall brought us world attention.

It is the variety of landscapes, colours and textures that surround us here in Northumberland that stimulates my imagination and feeds directly into the collections I create. One of our favourite places to visit, and a continuing source of inspiration whatever the season, is our local arboretum at Howick Hall, where Lady Grey, of Earl Grey tea fame, once lived. We are lucky to live close to Edinburgh so can visit the city’s international museums and of course I make periodic visits to London, both to soak up the stimulating creativity of the capital and to re-stock on supplies!

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Design: Mia
Model: Julianne Johnson
Photographer: Phil Punton
H&MU: U Salon at The Park
Milliner: Margaret Woodliff Wright

I now have a varied and diverse clientele and whilst many are local, it has been a pleasure to work with clients such as Jane, Duchess of Northumberland, the Lord Lieutenants of Northumberland and Tyne & Wear as well as national personalities, creating both official headwear, race day, bridal and family occasion hats and headpieces

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Design: The Northumberland Border Shepherds Tartan headpiece with a pheasant feather bow
Model: Julianne Johnson
Photographer: Phil Punton
H&MU: U Salon at The Park
Milliner: Margaret Woodliff Wright

SM contacts etc on following page

https://www.instagram.com/the_northumberland_milliner/

Image 1

Design: Lost in Space

Model: Kelan Ross, Asheville, Tenn. https://www.instagram.com/the_buddha_barbie/

Photographer: Ruslan Tumash https://www.instagram.com/ruslan_tumash/

Location: Asheville – Flat Iron Square – the afternoon before Hurricane Helene

Milliner: Margaret Woodliff Wright https://www.instagram.com/the_northumberland_milliner/

Image 2 A & B

Design: Dark Shadow Horn Headpiece

Model – Bex Masters https://www.instagram.com/bexmasters/

Photographer: Jack Heron https://www.instagram.com/jack.herron.photography/