A unique and ground-breaking project to prevent the extinction hat making skills and support British millinery has drawn praise from film and television costume makers that have worked on Bridgerton, Star Wars, Les Miserables, Dr Who and Harry Potter, plus other artisans from fashion, museums and education.
Heritage Crafts – the national charity for traditional heritage crafts – recognise straw hat making, hat plaiting and hat block making as critically endangered crafts and hat making as an endangered craft, with currently only seven people listed as straw hat practitioners.
Luton was the beating heart of the hat making industry in England, which led to the football club being nicknamed the Hatters. There were over 400 hat manufacturers in Luton during the 1800s, with the majority of them straw hat manufacturers and suppliers. The level of production was astounding – at one stage, in the 1930s, they were producing over 70 million hats each year!
With an aim to re-establish lost skills, The Culture Trust Luton is the salvaging, restoring and loaning out to milliners the rare 17 Guinea machine, which would have been a common-place piece of equipment in these factories, but sadly, many were lost or left unused since the decline of the industry.
Straw hat making has been affected by the lack of access to these machines and the decline in skills. The machines are not made in the UK, so only limited second-hand machines are available and they are expensive and often missing parts.
Yona Lesger, The Culture Trust Luton Curator of Significant Collections, Hat Industry and Headwear, said: “Using the 17 Guinea machines offers authenticity, enabling theatrical milliners to achieve historically-accurate straw hats and bonnets; for film and TV, cameras can zoom in so close that every stitch is visible.”
One of the beneficiaries of the project is Liz Crossman who works as a milliner and costume prop maker for film, TV and theatre. Her film and theatre credits include: Star Wars: Andor (Season 2, 2023), Les Miserables (2018 and 2019), Spiderman: Far From Home (2018), The Book of Mormon (2017 and 2018) and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016).
She said: “I’m extremely grateful to Yona and the Culture Trust for reinstating these precious 17 Guinea machines and making them available to people such as myself, as working with straw has become a rare and ancient craft. I’m excited to hone those skills and explore what is possible by combining straw and costume.”
Claire Strickland is also using the machine in her work as a theatrical milliner. She and has worked on over 30 productions at the English National Opera, as well as making headwear for many theatre, film and TV productions including Doctor Who (2017) and the hugely popular Neflix period drama TV series Bridgerton (Season 3, 2023).
She said: “The machine will help me develop my theatrical millinery practice as I will be able to work with straw in an historically accurate way. It will also help me speed up and create hats faster.”
Sophie Lambe is a theatrical milliner, primarily working within the film industry. Her work is due to be seen in the upcoming two-part film adaptation of the hit West End musical Wicked, with Part One set to hit cinema screens in November, and then also the live action reimagining of Walt Disney’s Snow White, which is released early next year. She has also worked on Bridgerton (Seasons 1 and 2, 2020 and 2021).
She said: “I cannot remember the year I started looking for a 17 Guinea machine. I just know it’s been a very long time. The machines are a thing of beauty and craftsmanship in their own right but to be a small
part of learning how to keep the traditional method of straw hat making alive makes me very happy.
“As a theatrical milliner, I have either hand sewn or used the crude method of zigzagging on a
domestic machine which were my only options for creating period hats over the years. Using this
machine to create beautifully-finished hats fast will be a game changer for me and my team in this
world of high-definition video. I am so very grateful to Yona and the Culture Trust for this opportunity, thank you.”
Lesger added: “The Culture Trust is actively supporting the hat industry by offering workshops, inspiration study days, display venues and curatorial expertise.
“The 17 Guinea project is an innovative and exciting way of repurposing unaccessioned museum items, and bringing them back to life and use. The rare and expensive nature of 17 Guineas makes them one of the most in-demand items we can offer the industry. The project is groundbreaking in curatorial innovation and flips the traditional relationship between museum and maker.
“While focused on heritage millinery skills, the project will have positive ripple effects across British industries. Most milliners work as freelancers, so the machines and training support small businesses. Theatrical milliners such as Sophie Lambe, Claire Strickland, Liz Crossman, Pip Mayo and Sue Crowle will ensure the results of this project are seen across film, TV, theatre, and opera houses (including at Welsh National Opera), particularly in period dramas for which the UK sets the standards of excellence.
“Lauren Martin is a researcher/maker who creates historically-accurate pieces for exhibitions, thereby offering a unique skill to the museum sector. Fashion milliner Misa Harada is using the machine to create cutting-edge fashion headwear that will show on catwalks across the world, as well as in fashion magazines. The Morley College millinery course, under guidance of Vesna Pesic, has received one of the machines, thereby preparing its students to incorporate straw hats in their future work.”
With plans to find and restore more machines and continue to expand the lending programme, this project ensures a brighter future for millinery crafts. If you have an interest in following the project updates, please follow instagram @culturetrustuk #17Guineaproject or get in touch with Yona at museum.gallery@culturetrust.com.
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