Styling your big day is a piece of wedding cake
Your wedding day is one of the biggest days in your life, as it is for everyone involved (e.g. the groom or your grandmother who never thought you’d settle down) or everyone overly involved (like, mum or your overbearing Maid of Honor who’s clearly just jealous). And, being the perfect bride and party hostess that you are, you want to help your wedding party in finding the ideal outfit – or the style you preferred and stealthily passed off as your biggest critic’s idea because she wouldn’t agree if it was your idea. You know exactly who I mean.
That’s where London-based Amy Collett Millinery comes in. Cue the dove-release and the highest of choir notes, please. This site deserves a hat tip. Here’s the story behind the design.
It all started when a little Amy Collett found dress-up to be much more serious than rest of us, sporting beautifully clashing prints and stone washed jeans growing up.
“I have hundreds of back editions of Vogue and am constantly trying out new styles. The love of hats came later when I started attending family & friends weddings and horse racing events,” Collett said.
“I was inspired by everything I saw but could never find (or afford) quite the right design so I started customising here and there, and that is where is really began, and I haven’t looked back!”
1. The Isabella headpiece, £195, 2. The Ivy headpiece, £275, 3. The Florence headpiece, £325, 4. The Arabella headpiece, £135
An interesting piece of art, an unusual shape in nature or just a fabulous outfit she sees someone wearing on the King’s Road serves as inspiration for her collections. She also frequents vintage shops and antique markets, which is a natural instinct for her.
“I was dragged round them by my mother as a child so I think it’s in my genes.”
Now, all grown up, she’s made her dream come true with a millinery that specialises in the design of handmade and bespoke head pieces for all occasions. Yes, especially weddings.
Her guidelines for selecting the perfect hat for you are just glimpses into the expertise Amy provides:
1. Make sure you feel comfortable. If you feel awkward you will look awkward.
2. Always make sure the brim size is never wider than your shoulders because, in this case, the hat will wear you rather than you wearing the hat.
3. If you are shorter, add height with your hat. Don’t go for a squat design.
4. If you are tall, make sure you go for a smaller design. You don’t want to tower over people.
5. Be brave. You can afford to be with a hat.
6. Hats can make or break an outfit, so make sure you get some good advice before splashing out.
Amy trained in Millinery at the London College of Fashion and has since worked for the prestigious milliner Katherine Elizabeth. She then decided to follow her dream to become a milliner and established Amy Collett Millinery in early 2014.
While her company may be new, she is definitely no newbie to the industry.
Be it the walk down the aisle, a day at the races or the perfect piece to complete an elegant evening ensemble, Amy has given countless clients exactly what they were looking for but found it hard to describe. And, with three new ready-to-wear collections produced every year; Spring/Summer, Autumn/Winter and Bridal, there truly is something for everyone.
Amy even offers bespoke milliner service tailored to clients’ specific needs in her South West London studio. With as much direction as you want, she can create the one-of-a-kind headpiece you always envisioned, but could never articulate. Honestly, after she’s done, you’ll probably still be as speechless as these customers, figuratively speaking of course because as you can see her patrons can’t say enough good things about Amy.
“The best feedback has to be one lovely mother-of-the-bride who actually cried when she came to pick up her hat. She had been searching for months to find the right piece and came to me with only 4 weeks to spare and at her wits end,” Collett remembered. “We really worked closely together to create a design to complement her bespoke outfit and the final creation was perfect.”
Amy even offers a colour match option, where fabrics and colours can be matched and dyed to your unique requirements. Click here for an insight into how Amy makes her hats. It’s pretty incredible – much like her fabulous hats.
So with all of this attention on her clients and their families, how does she find time for the family and friends in her life? Her answer is that work stops once Friday evening hits.
“Weekends, especially Sundays are all about family and friends so we make sure we are all together, be it having family and friends over for lunch, going to my parents farm or down to my husbands family on the South Coast,” said Collett.
“Friends keep you grounded and, working on my own, they are a great sounding board so I love to catch up with them whenever I can. I have started doing pre-launch and styling parties to show them mood boards and designs over wine so I can mix business with pleasure!”
In the meantime, she confesses coffee and late nights are a staple in her life. Hey, she’s our kind of girl.
