Last time I freelanced for Jane it was a snowy January and we were making the spring summer collection ready to go into the department stores.

This time in the heat of summer we were producing couture one off hats for celebrity clients and members of the Royal family for Royal Ascot.

Everything we made was completely had crafted from scratch. This included ‘blocking’ the shapes on specially hand carved wooden hat blocks, re-enforcing each shape with wire,  hand dying feathers, curling feathers, stitching in linings, sewing on sparkles, making custom bows, lace trims, flowers and fabric swirls to name but a few of our daily tasks. 

I have included some behind the scenes shots to give you an idea of the process and the time invested in making each hat.

It was a very busy time and our work was only interrupted by intermittent shrieks of excitement as we all huddled round the TV and spotted various people wearing the hats that we had made, sometimes just the day before.

Some of the women Jane designed for included:

Emma Spencer, who wore three of Jane's hats whilst presenting on channel four, The Countess of Wessex, who wore three of Jane’s creations during the course of the week,  Danielle Liniker, who wore an elegant large brimmed hat in mint on day one,  Amanda Wakeley, who rocked a modern take on the classic straw boater on day two and a dramatic pleasant feather head piece on  ladies day (seen in the Vogue online photo)

Jane Taylor’s style is very elegant and flattering. She takes inspiration from vintage styles and makes them her own by using contemporary materials and techniques.  She is not afraid to make dramatic show pieces (such at the hat she made for Amanda Wakeley) and equally intricately beautiful smaller accessories (such as the Ivory beaded cocktail hat for Emma Spencer.)

Ascot is such a great occasion for hats and fashion, it is a perfect excuse to dress to impress, at an event that is quintessentially British!

Colours that were well represented at Ascot this year were nude, coral, black, mint, purple, teal, Navy and a touch of neon.

Anything goes at Royal Ascot and it is a brilliant celebration of creativity, style and humor and of course fantastic for British Millinery.

More of Jane Taylor’s hats can be seen at www.janetaylormillinery.com

Holly Young’s work can be seen at  www.hollyyoungboutique.com  and available to view at her Truro studio in Prince’s House Cornwall.  Email her today today find out more about having a bespoke headpiece or buying from her collection.

It's an event that looms large on many people's calendars and not just brides or wedding suppliers, a day sure to inspire as it showcases the cream of Cornwall's creative talent.

Wed Magazine is a much loved and highly respected publication in the region and beyond, and for many suppliers it is the only show they will do.  Guaranteed to be well organised and busy, we all turn out knowing we are in safe hands and look forward to meeting the wonderful readers of the magazine who turn out in abundance to put faces to the names they read about, and plan the fine detail of their big days.

This years Wed show did not disappoint - with 200 hundred pre registered visitors (and about 4 times that actually in attendance) the day was buzzy, busy and jolly good fun!  All hosted in the elegant surroundings of the Headland Hotel in Newquay - nestling in rugged surroundings over looking Fistral Beach, it was the perfect place to spend a chilly Sunday afternoon.

Princes House was well represented with Annalise Harvey, Holly Young Headwear and Anna d'Souza all displaying their breathtaking designs.  Ella Butler was there too making up the gorgeous models who wafted around all day looking fabulous in our work!

It was great for us to meet some new faces too - and re assuring that despite only being open for 7 weeks the word about Princes House had spread with many visitors to our stand having attended our fabulous launch night in February.

We all wanted to say a massive thank you to Rebecca and Brendan of Wed Magazine for their incredible organisation, attention to detail, and for looking after us all so well!

Jane Taylor is a luxury milliner based in Fulham. She has dressed the heads of the Duchess of Cambridge, the Countess of Wessex And other European Royals. Her work can regularly be seen on the pages of Hello magazine and Tatler. 

Her creations are whimsical and elegantly beautiful with a touch of vintage styling. Taking  inspiration  from taxidermy,  antique prints and couture designs. Jane Taylor’s hats are individually hand crafted to create three stunning collections- Couture, Ready-to-Wear (Taylor by Jane Taylor and Limited Edition by Jane Taylor) and Bridal. 

I am a milliner myself and was asked to assist in making the ready-to-wear range for the department stores. We had a tight deadline so I packed up my bags from Cornwall and off I went!

When I arrived I was thrilled to meet Lupin her adorable whippet (who was sporting a very jazzy jumper!)  Her studio is divided into two spaces, a ground floor show room housing her stunning collections and upstairs her working millinery studio where all the magic happens! 

In the studio was Jane, Raina who I met working at Philip Treacy’s, Katie -  Jane’s P.A, and Natalie and Kelly, both doing work experience. We set to, working on some feathered head pieces for House of Frazer, and we had twenty five of each style to make so we had to get cracking

There was lots to do over the course of the two weeks. Our daily tasks consisted of sewing sequined fabric onto fascinator bases, curling feathers, twisting crin into pretty shapes, sticking  Swarovski crystals and pearls onto veiling, wiring silk flowers onto headbands, blocking (molding) hat shapes and usually pricking our fingers with needles multiple times a day!

Jane started her business after completing a course in millinery at Kensington & Chelsea 7 years ago, starting her business from a rented room in Mortlake. Since then her business has gone from strength to strength and she is now known for her considered use of tonal colouring and dramatic shapes. So much so that this year saw orders from Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Fenwicks, Fortnum & Mason and House of Fraser.

My two weeks working at Jane’s was filled with laughter and fun, we made over two hundred hats which will be on the shelves in selected stores of House of Frazer within the month.

I’ll be back again to make more beautiful hats when there is another big order on ... who says you can’t mix business with pleasure!  

I was lucky enough to have an appointment with Dan Jaffe of Jaffe et Fils Ltd at his factory situated in Aximinster. The buildings are affectionately known as ‘the feather factory’ by the locals. The company is the last surviving feather works in the UK.

It was started by his parents, Lois and Eric Jaffe after the war and is now run by two of his sons, Ben and Felix. They import all kinds of feathers from all around the world (where the different birds are farmed) as raw material. They then dye, cut and treat the feathers ready for the fashion industry to use in all kinds of creative ways.

As you can imagine, I was very excited to be there and it was a pleasure to be shown round the whole factory. There were boxes upon boxes of different feathers all labeled up. There were orange ostrich feathers, black peacock feathers, turquoise spines you name it, they had it. They also do all sorts of feather mounts to be used in military regalia and feather Scots Pipers Bonnets for the marching bands. Dan was happily showing me The Hat magazine in which various well known milliners use their feathers. He then took me around the rest of the factory to show me how everything was made.

First he took me to the courtyard where on a series of washing lines were bunches of ostrich and peacock feathers hung upside down to dry in the sun. They had been treated and dyed ready to be turned into something magical.

In the warehouse there were bags of Turkey Marabout feathers (soft and fluffy) in every colour of the rainbow. These are used for trims and boas. They were like giant multicolored pillows you wanted to jump into (I had to stop myself). There was a room with some ladies sewing strips of feathers into fringing to decorate costumes with, edge headdresses, trim cushions….whatever you can think of! And there were other ladies upstairs trimming and cutting feathers into arrowheads. It’s fantastic that everything is done by hand on the premises and for the consumer buying from this company supports British industries and saves on air miles.

We went upstairs and there was a warehouse full of all the raw materials, with huge bags full of natural plumage from guinea fowl, partridge, turkey, goose, duck, cockerel, Ring Neck, Lady Amherst and Reeves pheasant. On this floor was a lady stripping and cleaning ostrich feathers. She looked very content surrounded by all the fluffy waste from feathers. Dan explained to me that shortly after the war his father had found a bag of feathers that had been thrown out and that his mother who was very artistic turned them into brooches and sold them at a market. It all started from there. Dan explained how the business went from strength to strength. However the increased use of cars with a closed top the car saw the decline of people wearing elaborate hats. He said that the buses and trams gave more space for a lady to wear large hats with feathers on and when people started traveling in cars they began to wear hats that were more practical for the smaller spaces. However business is still going strong for the family who have recently expanded to a brand new building.

I ended up staying for over two and a half hours just chatting and learning about the history of feathers and the millinery industry in Briton.

You can find out more about Holly's work here and the feather factory here