The crowd watching the hat parade at the International Millinery Forum cocktail party

Today, day 1, of the International Millinery Forum in Wagga Wagga, Australia.

I was lucky enough to attend a demonstration by Richard Nylon on techniques with feathers. The amazing expanse of his imagination and experimentation with feathers was shared generously with all attendees. I know that I was in awe and benefited immensely from his knowledge of feathers and will certainly be using more and better looking feathers on my creations in the future thanks to Richard.

Covered in the workshop were many techniques on using turkey, goose, peacock and ostrich feathers.  My favorite technique was putting knots in biots to get a star like effect. This gave an effect that I think I have always looked for,  so I may show this in greater detail here in the future.

A trade show ran all day at the Wagga Wagga RSL club. With many inspiring materials to buy my imagination ran wild on all the different things I could make with it all – if only they could sell more time as well.  It would have been easy to spend a lot of money. Luckily I had drawn up a shopping list and pretty much stuck to it except for maybe that occasional bargain or two or three…

One of the highlights of the trade show was being able to buy crinoline for $2/metre from the trimming company who came all the way from the UK to show us their wares. It will be great to be able to experiment on some fabric that didn’t cost a fortune.

A cocktail party and hat parade finished the night with stunning millinery and outfits on display at Borambola Wines. With good tasting wine and delicious food it was a great way to finish the day.

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Here is a list of Millinery suppliers so far on my links page….

Australia

Melbourne

Cyril J Preston

Supplier to the millinery and associate trades. Check out their website for the supplies of hats and feathers currently available. They dye or get dyed some of their own feathers – I have picked up some great feathers there.
38 Walsh St,
West Melbourne,
VIC 3003.
Ph: 03 9329 8944.
visit CJ Preston

Torb and Reiner Millinery

Hat making with a passion. Provides a wide range of millinery materials, supplies and tools. Also supplies products that are not available elsewhere such as jinsin and straw cloth. They also run regular courses from their Murrumbeena studio and around Australia.
Ph: 03 9504 4476.
visit Torb and Reiner

Melbourne Hat Blocks

This Melbourne based hat block maker takes orders on the Internet. I have seen a few of the hat blocks purchased by some of my Millinery friends and they appear to be of good quality.

Unit 3, 2 Celia St
Bentleigh East
VIC, 3165
Australia
(03) 9579 343
visit: Visit Your Hat Shop

NSW

Wagga Wagga

De Lew Designs

Milliner and Millinery supplies. From sinamay and capalines/hoods, to hat veiling, flowers and millinery tools. Has a great online ordering system and very efficient mailing.
15 Crisp Dr,
Wagga Wagga,
NSW 2650.
Ph: 02 6971 1122. visit De Lew Designs

Queensland

Feather.com.au – Supplier of all kind of feathers. The largest selection of hand-dyed, commercially dyed and natural feathers in Australia. A good online shopping system.

Lot 14, Chatham Terrace,
Smithfield Heights,
Cairns, QLD 4878.
Ph: 07 4038 2882. visit Feather.com.au

Sydney

SA Brown or the Hat Studio

Millinery supplies: blocking fabric, capeline, cocktail shapes, crinoline, feathers, flowers, hat blocks, hoods, ribbons, sinamay braid and fabric, veiling. Also conduct millinery workshops.
168 Victoria Ave,
Chatswood,
NSW 2067.
Ph: 02 9413 4311. visit the Hat Studio

Until I went to Dita Feathers in Sydney I didn’t realise that there were so many different types of Ostrich feathers.

The male feathers are bigger than the females, the mating feathers even bigger – In fact they were huge. Then of course there are left and right hand feathers… Of course the price goes up with the size and the use of the largest feathers would increase the price of a hat by quite a lot.

I realise now how little I know about feathers and how much there is to learn. I think I will have to research feathers for a future post.

The customer service was friendly, I was able to get feathers that were perfect for the designs I have in mind. They sell a wide variety of feathers including both male and female and mating ostrich feathers – some of them quite huge, and any other feathers a milliner would require. You can buy the larger feathers separately, smaller ones by the cm (minimum 10cm) and some in clusters ready to put onto a hat or fascinator. 

Dita Feather can be found at 288 Crown Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010, phone 02 9331 7717.   Its opening hours are Monday to Friday 9:00am until 12:00 and 12:30 until 5:00pm