Looking Forward

Royal Ascot this year was the busiest year yet for me, it was exhausting to say the least but great fun and it all went smoothly with the help of my niece Georgie Ince who was fantastic, I have already booked her for next year!

Straight after Ascot week, we sat down and discussed where we thought we could improve the business.  One thing we agreed on was that we decided to get a bigger vehicle next year to transport all of the hats to and from Royal Ascot.  We also discussed colours and styles of hats and headpieces that we thought we could have more of and we did an order there and then.  Since then I have made numerous orders with milliners such as Juliette Botterill, Carol Kennelly, Gina Foster, Edel Ramberg, Jennifer Wrynne, Amanda Dudley (from Australia), Marvellous Millinery, Gemma J Millinery, Suzie Mahoney and of course Dawn Guibert.  I have also bought some Philip Treacy pieces along the way, they are hard to get hold of.  I recently met him at The Derby this year and luckily I was wearing one of his hats!, we were chatting and he was absolutely charming.  Although he doesn't supply his pieces to hat hire businesses, he was really interested in how it all works and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting him.

I have also added many pieces to my Autumn/Winter collection which is growing nicely. I had a 'hat cull' recently and removed over 40 hats that I felt were not worthy of being in my collection ! This has refreshed my collection and of course made room for many more. I am always looking to update my collection and I must say I'm extremely proud of my current collection and I'm confident everyone who visits will agree.

Of course it's not all about Royal Ascot and I have had a really busy season with lots of ladies coming to hire hats for weddings, investitures, christenings, cathedral services and even fancy dress parties ! We have recently updated the website, so please enjoy the new hats !

Don't forget Champions Day is coming up soon and the Hennessey meeting at Newbury, as well as the Arc De Triomphe - great opportunities to wear a lovely autumn/winter piece. I am also selling a new version of the very popular Marvellous Millinery trilby. The 2014 version is made with an upgraded felt (rabbit fur felt) and it is available in many colour ways as before and finished off with the lovely feather detail. They are selling for £190!