About Us

What We Do

In the studio we make magic. At least that’s what we strive to make. Handmade with time, effort and talent we can create whatever hat in in your imagination. We can also add elegance and beauty to your bridal or party outfit by creating a custom piece.

How it All Started

I started making hats when I was a teenager. I made them for myself and my insistently energy to be a maker took over. At some point I started making them for a few friends. I then wandered over to art school and took a degree in Fine Arts with a triple major in painting, printmaking and sculpture. I have taught myself to be a milliner but my mother and her mother, my Nan, taught me how to sew. I am asked how I “got into this” and I don’t have a good answer. I just sort of realized 5 years into it that it’s what I do. Not a very exciting story but it’s all true.

I finally hired an apprentice after needing one for about 3 years. Sara is a doll and has learned when I wasn’t even teaching anything other than to not waste materials and mistakes can be worked into something at some point. Most of the time.

I make the work according to some inspiration I can’t define that is influenced by books, movies and the awful things I see people leaving the house in. That, more as a “how could you leave your house like that!?” kind of inspiration. I love handwriting and fabric and paper and lovely things people seem to have forgotten the value of. I am always heartbroken when I discover that someone has disposed of something lovely.  I am pained by the beauty of what makers used to put into their wares of everyday things and I want to bring some of that attention to detail into the things I make.

As for what I do each day? I listen to music, jazz, classical and opera as well as singer/ songwriter. I dream of living in the south of France but I would miss the freezing cold winters of Canada. I try to make something lovely and I try to slow things down. I believe in quiet and books and song birds. I want people to learn to see the joy in owning and using beautiful things and to understand the pleasure they can bring into their lives. I try to live as I have always wanted and I am willing to ignore T.V, crowds and being told what I like by cultural analysts.

Meaghan