Meet a Maker: Edition 26

Meet Jenny Beattie

1. What is your craft and how did you get into it?

I’m a milliner and hat maker. It took me much longer to get there than it should have. My parents were involved in amateur theatre all their lives. Our home was all about theatre: the attic was full of costumes and the basement was home to my Dad’s workshop. One time, he made lots of helmets for Macbeth from home-made wooden hat blocks, but it didn’t even hint to me that millinery was my thing. My first degree was in Classics and ten years later I completed a second degree in Fine Art, specialising in sculpture about the body. Then in 2005, we moved to Bangkok, where, quite by chance, I began making hats for fundraising events. This wasn’t millinery; I used a combination of sewing and maker skills to achieve the looks I was after. After a few years of this ‘Blue Peter’ style making, I realised that I wanted to know more about millinery. Soon I was organising my holidays around millinery courses and by 2016 I spent the whole of London Hat Week taking workshops, running between venues and I knew that I’d finally found my ‘thing’, so in 2017 I returned to the UK to complete the industry-level Millinery HNC at Kensington and Chelsea College.

2. What is one interesting fact about you?

I have two fewer bones in my body than most other people! In 2018, when I finished my HNC I was experiencing a lot of pain at the base of both my thumbs. A specialist hand surgeon told me I had no cartilage at the base of my thumbs, so every time I moved them, it was bone on bone agony. While steroid injections could help, the only long-term solution was a double trapeziectomy: the removal of a bone in each thumb! I had each operation done separately, which on the one hand (forgive the pun) left me with one working hand, but on the other meant recovery and rehabilitation took over a year. The good news is that both hands work like new, are totally pain free and I am so grateful.

3. How long have you been making?

All my life. I started sewing as a child. I used to find clothes in our attic full of costumes, and alter them to wear on non-uniform day. At 13, I altered a man’s dinner suit to ‘fit’ me, my aim being to rock the Steve Strange look, but I think it was probably just strange. I’ve tried nearly every craft under the sun, looking for the one that lit me up. I could – and do occasionally – waste time worrying about the tragedy of starting millinery so late, but I’ve recently reframed that thought. I spent years working with different materials and tools, honing my making and sewing skills and I now see those years as my apprenticeship.

4. Who are your favourite makers?

There are so many that inspire me today but back at the beginning there were individuals whose hats made a massive impression on me and contributed to my pursuit of millinery. An early Sarah Cant headpiece in a shop window stopped me in my tracks; it was hand-sculpted in parasisal and made me realise that hats didn’t have to be crowns and brims. A Jane Fryers’ hat made from 35mm rolls of film showed me they didn’t need to be felt or straw, that anything could be a material. As I graduated from the HNC, Sahar Freemantle’s UglyLovely hat that mixed spoons and roses let me dream I too could use anything to make or decorate a hat.

5. What is the most challenging skill/technique you learned in your craft?

Ah, how to get something to stay on the head. It’s pure engineering (please don’t tell any real engineers that I said that). It needs to be in the right place, at the right angle, fit the head it’s meant for, look weightless and be comfortable. For every new design of headpiece, it can feel like reinventing the wheel.

6. What is your favourite part of your craft?

For me the joy is all in the process of making. I also love the problem-solving part of creativity because it feels a bit like magic. I might have failed to make something work on a project, or think I don’t have the skills or experience to find a way to do it and then quite suddenly my brain will deliver up the solution. I love that I can use whatever material I want to use to make a hat: there are no rules. In my own time I’ve been working on a collection of Trash Hats, made from anything that catches my eye. I love millinery materials, but I also love to deviate from what’s expected. I’ve made hats from used teabags (Starling Murmuration) and cat food pouches (Raptor) just because something excited me about the fabric, its colour or texture or simply the challenge of transforming it. The last year has been full of collaborations which has been such a joy. Making hats alone in my studio can feel isolating – though I don’t dislike this as much as this suggests. But once I hand a hat over to someone who wants to use it in a whole look, with a model or actor, on a set, to tell a story – that is the best feeling!

7. What project are you most proud of and why?

I’ve been collaborating with a Central St Martin’s student, Matthew Andrews for nearly two years. In early 2024 I made the hats for his debut fashion show, held in The Crypt Gallery in London. It was a such fun to work with Matthew. I was backstage at the show with my sewing kit. With lots of live theatre in my background, I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed that huge adrenalin rush of a live project. I’m working with Matthew again this year for his final collection which is going to be absolutely fabulous.

8. If someone who knows nothing about you and your practice could know one thing, what would it be?

I think it would have to relate to why hats can cost so much; to understand the differences between a mass-produced hat and a one-off handmade piece, and to know that something unique and structural could have taken ten days or more of full-time work.

Learn more about Jenny