Dec
09
Millinery is for the moments that matter. The moments you want to remember, and the moments you want to be memorable. That’s why we love weddings at Lomax & Skinner. The chance to be part of someone’s big day, and to share the excitement of creating a beautiful headpiece or veil that will live on in photographs and memories for the rest of their life.
Bridal style
We don’t have a set style for our bridal millinery and we are not dictated by bridal fashions. Our style is led by the bride, her personality, the location of her wedding, and of course, her dress. We have created showstopping avant garde millinery for high fashion weddings, and chic minimalist headpieces for intimate civil gathering, and loved both equally.
The joy of wedding millinery design is in making the one hat, veil or headpiece that is the perfect finishing touch to a dream outfit. Not everyone dreams of their wedding day, but everyone wants to look and feel their best, so our bridal style is to perfectly interpret the wishes of the bride.
Bridal design
We are couture milliners, so there are no restrictions on what we can achieve. We have sample designs for our brides to try on (some of which are pictured here), but every element of the design can be tailored and personalised. Each part is hand sewn and hand shaped, which gives us the freedom to realise any design.
It is not just the physical shape of the piece that can be altered, we can hand dye the fabrics and trimmings to perfectly match any dress. Alternatively, we can use dress fabric as coverings, and to make trimmings. The embroidered flowers on our Esme veil headdress (pictured) were cut out from a dress fabric and hand sewn.
All of our designs are handmade to the highest standard, but for our bridal millinery, we believe in particularly close attention to detail. Feathers are hand trimmed and dyed, and the fabrics are carefully selected. We work to create a piece that will be treasured for generations. Some of our clients have chosen to display their hat after their wedding.
The Lomax & Skinner bridal service
Planning a wedding can be a stressful business, so our bridal service is focussed on making the millinery design process stress-free, and fun. Between us we have many years of experience in designing and making bridal hats, headpieces and veils, so we can offer expert advice and smooth service. For details of our couture design process, please see here.
Like our hats, our bridal service can be tailored to the exact requirements of the bride. We can create co-ordinating pieces for the bridesmaids, Mother of the Bride and Mother of the Groom, and even buttonholes for the gentlemen. We can also arrange group consultations and fittings, so why not consider a bridal millinery party?
To discuss any part of our bridal service, or for an informal discussion of your wedding plans, please contact us at studio@lomaxandskinner.co.uk, or call 07949 123693.
The beautiful dresses in this shoot were designed by www.joanneflemingdesign.com.
Oct
20
For us, design is about more than looks. Good design does not just look good, it feels good too. The craftsmanship, the fitting, and even the sourcing of materials, all have to be right to ensure our clients receive a finished hat that is worthy of our name.
Inspired design
Our inspiration comes from all over, and the starting point for a design can be anything from a sketch from nature, a cloud spotted from our studio window, or the personality of a client.
We love to mix vintage and contemporary elements in our designs as millinery has a rich history, but each piece we create is an original. We believe millinery is a living art form, not a heritage craft.
Bespoke millinery design is all about creating something beautiful that is suited to the personal style of the wearer. So, our ultimate goal is to create a hat or headpiece that our client will receive lots of compliments on, and thoroughly enjoy wearing.
Traditional craftsmanship
We trained under the late Frederick Fox, for many years milliner to the Queen. The techniques we use and the quality of our craftsmanship are firmly in the tradition of English couture millinery.
Each element is created by hand, using hat blocks, hand shaping, and hand sewing. Every hat we produce is fitted specifically to the wearer, and fully lined for comfort.
Quality materials
All of our materials are of the highest possible quality to ensure our designs stay fresh. Where fabrics are woven, they are of a good, heavy weave that will not pile easily. Where they are dyed, either pre-dyed or hand dyed by us, they are done using the best quality dyes, so the colours will not easily fade.
Wherever possible, we source materials locally. For example our pheasant feathers are sourced from Thorney Moss Game Farm, just outside Lewes. The responsible sourcing of feathers is important to us, so we only buy feathers from reputable suppliers.
Jul
09
We were really excited with our recent collaboration with Joanne Fleming www.joanneflemingdesign.com Joanne creates stunningly beautiful dresses taking inspiration from 1900’s to the 1950’s.
Her exclusive designs are worn by stylish women wanting something different, elegant and feminine. Her designs can be seen gracing the pages of fashion magazines and catwalks worldwide.
The dresses are made from exquisite laces from Italy and France, hand dyed and intricately crafted into contemporary designs.
Jo asked us to design a capsule collection of bridal hats and headdresses for a garden photo shoot she was planning with her amazing designs.
We went over to Jo’s studio in Brighton and choose some beautiful laces to work with along with some old photographs to use as inspiration. We designed a range of six hats for the shoot. Two of the hats were large pieces and took about a week each to make including creating the toiles and hours of hand sewing delicate pieces of lace.
Jo was delighted with all of the hats and we had fun on the shoot.
Jan
21
Sarah and I were very saddened to hear of the death of Frederick Fox. We met whilst serving apprenticeships for him in his New Bond Street workroom and feel we couldn’t have had a better training. The apprenticeship lasted for three years and we spent our first weeks just picking up pins and tidying threads and observing the experienced milliners. It felt like forever before we were allowed to work on a hat! Sarah very clearly remembers how exciting it was to actually make a fabric button that was going to be sewn on a hat as a trimming. Even more exciting that it was going to be on a hat for the Queen.
Frederick Fox had had a Royal Appointment for many years. We were privileged to have had the opportunity of making hats for The Queen, Princess Diana, Duchess of York and other members of The Royal Family whilst working there.
We recently came across this lovely obituary by Stephen Jones.
http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2013/12/16/stephen-jones-frederick-fox-dead—milliner-obituary
