Commission Me
Commissioning a hat encompasses a wide variety of options, from tweaking stock items to opening up a whole world of bespoke options
How to commission
Although it’s design is more of an occasion hat, there is nothing more joyous than downplaying it with jeans. It’s super easy to put on and wear and elevates any outfit.
The timing was perfect - I had an event that I needed my hat for, and it came in plenty of time. So I could check it with my dress and shoes, play around with the placement on my head, and it even in good enough time for me to colour match it with my lipstick!
The design process was a real collaboration between the milliner and myself. Sarah understood the brief and listened to all of my ideas, infusing her instinct for design, her flair and her inspiration in to the process. Each of her ideas was thoughtful and added immeasurably to the final look. I couldn’t have been happier with the interpretation of my brief. It felt like a real couture experience.
I was happy that the hat didn’t dominate my
outfit, which was exactly the look I was after,
but there is no doubt that it enhanced my
overall look immeasurably and I had such
lovely feedback from my friends.
The hat was perfect for the occasion,
and more importantly, perfect for my style.
I took so much joy in wearing a hat that was
designed and made just for me.
That felt very special.
If I’m honest, I think I was undercharged
for such a bespoke process.
TD - London
The Commissioning Process
Costings can vary hugely, where commissions will involve just tweaking existing designs (which many commissions do) the prices on this site are very indicative of prices for commissions.
I can guide a client through the options: offering common sense solutions, for example a five petal lily or a rose bud will come into budget far more easily than a hand painted and formed peony with fifty petals.
Colour matching
I will do my best to colour match based on materials available from my range of suppliers, but I will advise if I need to dye to match and any costs associated with this.
Setting a budget
Designing to an agreed budget can result in some fabulous creative results.
There are sometimes lovely surprises such as beautiful semi precious beads or even real freshwater pearls offer an affordable wonderful lift to a design.
Recently a client had a two part wedding, and rather than creating two hats to go with the two outfits I created one hat with two different clip on sections, each to enhance the relevant outfit but without the cost of creating two separate hats.
Timing
For most commissions I recommend an initial consultation, at which the client brings the outfit for which we will be coordinating with, an interim fitting and a final fitting. However, I have done some highly successful commissions remotely.
Generally I like to have about 4 weeks for a commission. The sooner I can book in a commission the better, so I can block off my diary however I have been able to turn around urgent commissions within the space of a week on occasion, where colour matching is not critical.