Adrienne Henry Millinery

1950's Bridal Pillbox Hat As we are soon approaching 2017 next year's brides will be thinking about their upcoming wedding. Many brides undoubtedly will be planning a 1950's style wedding. At Adrienne Henry Millinery we offer a bespoke hat making service for those brides who wish to complete their outfit with a pillbox or hat to compliment their beautiful dress. For more information about the service we offer please email me. adriennehenry@hotmail.co.uk www.adriennehenrymillinery.co.uk

The Bee Keeper Photo Shoot The Sunflower Hat Behind the scene photographs After months of preparation our photo shoot entitled The Bee Keeper took place. Having bought a jar of local honey from a bee keeper and a honeycomb the ideas of making hats for a photoshoot came flooding in within a few minutes. I quickly asked a friend of mine who is an amazing corsetiere to make a corseted dress. Lyndsey very quickly designed the most beautiful outfit.  The collaboration started 5 months ago, lots of ideas and lots of sewing. Yesterday we had the most enjoyable day in a Shawn's studio. Lyndsey preparing our model for the shoot. Love the expression of Giorgia's face. Our photographer Pasquale having a creative moment. Elegant Top Hat The top hat we made for our beautiful queen bee!

Cloche Hats Autumn/Winter Collection 2016/17 With a few of our favourite designs To have creative people around me continuously is wonderful. One of my very creative friends is Pasquale Vaira. As a photographer he loves to create an usual scene, his photographs tell a story, From weddings to fashion he loves to demonstrate his imagination through his images, which at times has no bounds. I enjoy designing hats for him to use in his work. Here are a few of the 1920's photos from his recent photo shoot at a disused railway station. If only the station could tell it's stories of life in the 1920's, There are probably some very interesting historical tales to tell! www.pazvaira.com Thank you Pasquale.

1950's pillbox hat accessorising a designer's beautiful  1950's styled wedding dress Dress designed by Louise Rose Couture It is always a pleasure to be asked to be included within a photo shoot. The photo shoot was a collaboration between a number of people, dress designer, make up artist and photographer. Today I have been asked again to collaborate in an Autumn photo shoot with a stylist, photographer, makeup artist and my friend Lyndsey Clark who is an amazing dress designer, www.lyndseyclarkboutique.co.uk My next collaboration will take place in two weeks time, it will be a fantastic experience for us all. Images to follow as soon as possible. www.adriennehenrymillinery.co.uk

Stylish 1920's Blue Wool Felt Cloche  Photoshoot This photo was taken at a disused railway station. It is hard to imagine what it looked like 100 years ago but I would imagine very stylist ladies wearing very fashionable clothes and stylish accessories, which would have included a cloche hat, would have been waiting on the platform for their train to London. Thank you Pasquale Vaira for the lovely images. www.adriennehenrymillinery.co.uk

 My Lovely Hat! Simply Audrey! This is a very happy lady who had one of our bespoke hats handmade for her. When having a hat designed there are many factors to take into account. The overall appearance is important.  For a special occasion each part of the outfit should be taken into consideration, the dress for some is the starting point, for a few, it is the hat. If a client sees a design they particularly like, one which suits the shape of their face and isn't too large or too small, this is often a good starting point.  This hat, which suited Jean perfectly, was an easy choice. Black is a classic colour as is a black and white dress. If the colour suits you there is very little which can go wrong if everything else falls into place. www.adriennehenrymillinery.co.uk

Hat Making Courses A three day hat making course, An Introduction to Millinery, is proving a very popular course. Every month throughout this year we have had 3 day workshops, as a course is completed usually another is booked. There are lots of ladies interested in the art of hat making. I was delighted with my student this week. Her enthusiasm, concentration and hard work was amazing. The completed fascinator, headpiece and cocktail hats are beautiful. Both of us were delighted with the end result. Looking forward to my next course in September. For more information please look at our website www.hatmakingcourses.co.uk

Red Wool Cloche with a Curl 'The Curl' The cloches we make are as popular today as they were when we started making them 5 years ago. Our challenge each year is to create a new design, or two.  Our two designs Autumn/Winter 2016 will be one brand new design and one I designed a few years ago  which we refer to as 'The Curl'. Cloches were sold in Covent Garden in London and Reading, where we are based. The Curl was extremely popular and many of our hats went around the world when we originally started making this design. As a cloche it is a very easy hat to wear and it can be worn backwards too! www.adriennehenrymillinery.co.uk

Designing & Making Leather Covered Hats Adrienne Henry Millinery Having been inspired by the beauty of working with leather I am going to incorporate leather where ever possible in my new Autumn collection of hats. At the moment I am very busy making leather leaves and flowers to adorn the 1920's style cloches. Images to follow soon......hopefully. I am also going to offer a short course of working with leather on my website, wwwhatmakingcourses.co.uk . All information coming sson.

How to make a silk covered cocktail hat workshop One of our workshops is how make a silk covered cocktail hat. During this workshop students learn how to make a cocktail hat using buckram which after blocking and wiring, is covered with two fabrics, the second, being the silk.as seen in the last photo. For the decoration of this hat leaf shapes were cut from two different coloured leathers. Two leaves were glued together with stiff millinery wire through the centre which will allow movement after attaching them to the hat. As only the first half of the workshop has taken place more photos will follow when the hat is completed. www.hatmakingcourses.co.uk

Wedding Hat A cloche making workshop was given to Zuzana as a birthday present. The decoration  Zuzana made is one of my favourite designs, it was bright and beautifully made. A few weeks later  Zuzana came back to the shop and ordered a hat to wear to a wedding. We sat together for a long time designing her hat's decoration. Once again the final design was a success and Zuzana looked beautiful. And we have become friends! This all started with a birthday present. www.hatmakingcourses.co.uk www.adriennehenrymillinery.co.uk

A headpiece being designed in one of our hat making courses. www.hatmakingcourses.co.uk

Men's Hats  In our we have a selection of men's hats suitable for all seasons and weather. Our styles of hats include; felt top hats, felt and fur felt fedoras, tryblys of various styles and colours, baker boy hats, flat capss, bowler hats and many more styles. For more information please phone for more information +44(0)1189 504421

The dates of our next open workshop is Saturday 2nd July 2016 We will be holding two fascinator workshops on Saturday 2nd July, one in the morning 10.00 until 12.00 and one in the afternoon, 2.00 until 4.00. During this workshop you will learn how to design and hand make a simple but elegant fascinator. The workshop will be held in our hat shop in Harris Arcade, Reading. Numbers will be limited in both workshops to 6 persons. The price of the workshop is £40 per person, all fabric etc used is included within the price. For more information or to book a place please email' adrienne@ahmillinery.com or telephone 01189504421 http://www.hatmakingcourses.co.uk/workshop-dates.html

Hat \making Courses & Workshops. After so many enquiries we have decided to have a website purely devoted to hat making courses and workshops. Our new website is www.hatmakingcourses.co.uk . It is not quite completed as there are more workshops to write about.  If you are interested in making a hat please take a look. This is my student Celia making a sinamay rose. The completed sinamay and silk roses. www.hatmakingcourses.co.uk

One of our hats which was collected today.  This will be worn to a wedding next month. I thought I would video the client trying on her hat before it left the shop. This design is one of our favourites as it perches elegantly just to the side of the forehead.

Cloche Making Workshop YouTube Video Adrienne Henry Millinery How to make a 1920's style cloche workshop Exciting news! Just had a look and we have reached over 13,000 views on our YouTube channel. Looking forward to making the next video.Please take a look if you would like to see a workshop in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cve3d20i8kk These ladies made their cloches in one of our workshops, The designs were complicated and they were made over two days. We offer a one and two day cloche making workshop, for information about all the courses and workshops we run please take a look at our website,  www.hatmakingcourses.co.uk

This very large hat, which is a collaboration, on it's way for the next stage of designing.  It will come back to us again for the final stage after which it will be ready to be worn to Ascot on ladies day. The end result will be amazing I am sure. More photos to follow. If you are interested in commissioning a very large hat for a special occasion please contact us at adrienne@ahmillinery.com  www.adriennehenrymillinery.co.uk

Our CoCo Collection is a perfection design to wear to special occasions. This design is a statement piece and will turn heads. The ''wing' design which is decorated with beautiful Lady Amherst feathers, is simple and elegant. The red sinamay is a perfect colour match to the feathers. For more information please contact adrienne@ahmillinery.com www.adriennehenrymillinery.co.uk

Royal Ascot We are busy designing new hats for this very special occasion. I saw this image earlier and thought how suitable this would be for a lady who wishes to turn heads. The hat is black and gold. The covering on the brim of the hat is gold coloured thread, the decoration is gold silk, an elegant combination. It is still available to order from our website,Alternatively contact me directly or visit us in Reading, Berkshire. www.adriennehenrymillinery.co.uk

Now available to buy on Etsy This morning we have listed a number of cocktail hats on Etsy. These are two examples of the cocktail hats available. For more please look at our Etsy shop,  www.etsy.com/your/shops/AdrienneHenry/tools/listings if you would like us to design a hat to your design and colour please contact me, adriennehenry@hotmail.co.uk              www.etsy.com/your/shops/AdrienneHenry/tools/listings/289067725 www.etsy.com/your/shops/AdrienneHenry/tools/listings/289072997

Completing A Hat After designing a hat or headpiece we become quite excited when sewing the last few stitches and finally seeing the end result of all our efforts. The finishing touches to one of our hats:

One of our new hats for this year's collection. Making the hats for our new collection has been very interesting. We design in quite an unusual fashion, no sketching takes place unlike many designers. Our ideas seem to just flow which makes the whole process different to designing with a client. When designing with a lady who is attending a special event we sometimes design hats which are quite different from those on our website, this too is a very enjoyable experience. This hat has evolved over a few days. Having made the hat it was time to decorate. For this we worked on making very simple elegant flowers made from organza. The end result is quite vintage in style, very Audrey! www.adriennehenrymillinery.co.uk

Making room in our shop for new designs. As we are now into the new season and busy making new hat designs we are having a "last chance Spring offer" on some of last years one-off samples to make some room in the shop. This black and cream polka dot hat is perfect for any special occasion including Royal Ascot, a day at the races, or a wedding. Usual price £350, NOW £125 plus P&P if postage is required. For more information please contact me via my website www.adriennehenrymillinery.co.uk or visit the shop. Other styles will also be available very soon.

My Dream For as long as I have been making hats my dream has been to make hats for the American market. Over the past 4 years many cloches have been bought as presents to take back to America when we were selling in Convent garden and from here in my shop in Reading. The Downtown Abbey style cloche has proven to be popular, if only we had a hat shop in New York! A few large hats have been ordered by clients to take home with them but I would be delighted if more orders came our way. Being situated in a small unit in a quiet arcade is not always beneficial, To be in outlets in parts of America is my dream, classy boutiques where hand made in England, or just hand made is important to the buyer. Having seen many styles of hats today in Henley I noticed that the majority were made using sewing machines rather than hand stitching. Our new 2016 designs are completely made by hand, we endeavor to make our stitching as invisible as possible.  One day hopefully my dream wi

Part of our new peacock collection After many hours of sewing, finally yesterday the hat I have been working on is complete! This large hat is perfect for the lady who wishes to make a bold statement. It has received a lot of attention whilst being made. Lots of compliments as the peacock sits very proud on the hat. It is ready for it's maiden voyage!

Cloche making workshops thoroughout the year. For more information look at our website www.adriennehenrymillinery.co.uk

Hats with a Theme Designing the unusual which makes heads turn is something I thoroughly enjoy. The more unusual hat the greater the enjoyment making is. A mad hatter top hat and a cocktail hat with cards are two of our favourite designs. I wonder what else we can do with cards in our new collection this year! www.adriennehenrymillinery.co.uk

Royal Ascot 2016 This year seems to be flashing by, it is already March and in just over three months Royal Ascot will be fast approaching. Each day we are designing new hats and headpieces suitable to wear for this very exciting event.  The Red Wing This design was one of our hat which was worn to Royal Ascot last year. This week we completed another Red Wing but is a smaller version of this design. It is a very elegant design perfect to wear for a special occasion. www.adriennehenrymillinery.co.uk

Cloche making workshop  How to make a beautiful 1920's cloche with the perfect Art Deco decoration!  Today was very enjoyable, Sarah was given a cloche making voucher from her husband as a birthday present. I took a number of photographs to record the day. The fist stage was steaming the wool hood to place on the cloche block. Lots of steam! Once the hood is steamed sufficiently it was placed on the block and the pinning process begins. Quite quickly the hood took the shape of a cloche. To complete the shape we place a band very tight where the crown meets the brim. We then allowed the cloche to dry completely before removing from the block Once the cloche is dry it was removed from the block and cut to the required shape. Now the cloche starts taking shape. The next stage is to wire the brim. After the wiring was complete using blanket stitch the cloche was ready for the next stage. The next stage was to sew on the edging. For this cloche