Jenny Beattie talk Sep 2024

Meeting on Monday 9th September 2024

Jenny Beattie - Mad as a Hatter: Modern Day Millinery

Jenny Beattie is a professional milliner who makes hats with meaning. Jenny began her talk by telling us about the history of millinery, the name derived from Milan, where the making and wearing of hats was very popular in the Middle Ages.

People have worn hats for thousands of years for a variety of reasons; protection, status, occupation, military and religious purposes. Fashions changed over the years and the requirement to wear a hat in the 1900’s became obligatory. Along with social changes in the 1960’s and ‘70’s, the fashion declined. During the 1980’s Royalty and Princess Diana helped to bring the wearing of hats back into fashion. Jenny reassured us that millinery and the wearing of hats is now on the increase with well-known artists such as Philip Treacy and Stephen Jones inspired by popular culture, moving hats into a sculptural art form with exhibition pieces shown in museums.

Jenny is a member of the British Hat Guild, a national association of professional milliners and hatters and headwear designers. Their aim is to raise the profile of millinery and to support and encourage craftsmanship, artistry, heritage, creativity, education and inspiration.

She came to hat making after living in Bangkok for many years and doing a fine art HNC course at Kensington and Chelsea college, now Morley college. She showed us the five hats she had to make for her final show. These were made using thermoplastics that were heat treated, inspired by mathematical nets, pineapples and temple rooftops. She made use of rubbish, teabags and plastic wrappings, as well as more conventional materials such as felt and sinamay.

We heard about a talented young artist, Matthew David Andrews, that Jenny met whilst doing her course. They have worked together and she made him a set of hats for a fashion show where he designed fantastic costumes for himself and others.

Jenny described the fabrics for making hats and the different types of hat and methods for making them. This included how to make a hat block using cardboard and sticky tape. Traditional wooden hat blocks are very expensive, so she has developed a method of making her own when appropriate.

Jenny has made a hat for a friend to be worn at Buckingham Palace, for London Hat week and for the theatre and she showed us that the ability to play with ideas and materials was essential for making original and creative outcomes which she does with artistic passion.

Chiltern Embroidery and Textile Group