Our Honorary Members
The British Hat Guild honours those who have contributed to the knowledge and training of today’s milliners.
Patricia Underwood
We are delighted to welcome Patricia Underwood as an Honorary Member. Please return to this page in the coming weeks as we explain her importance and significance to millinery and hat design.
“On a personal note, Patricia Underwood has been hugely influential to me as she is one of only a few milliners to be making hats that had an understated ease. Whilst there were a lot of milliners making amazing statement hats that wore the wearer, she seemed able to make hats that the wearer wore. It can be easy to pile on the trims, ’bells and whistles’, but to strip a shape bare and make it all about the flow and feel, is much harder than it looks. It takes an advanced attunement to edit, and purity of design to create that timeless chic that does not fight with the clothes for the spotlight, but instead elevates them.
She has created so many stitched braid hats using an innovative variety of braids including leather, without the need for interfacing wires and linings … refreshingly they just didn’t need it, so could easily be worn at both the beach and a wedding. Dressed up or dressed down always simple and elegant she understood the contemporary wearer.”
Rose Cory
Born in Mayday Gardens, London, in 1940.
She started work in the trade as an apprentice with Royal milliner Rudolf, where she trained intensively until the she was twenty-three.
She then went on to gain more experience with other prominent milliners of the day, such as Mitzi Lorenz, Verniers, Langee, Otto Lucas, Bermans Theatrical, and Frederick Fox.
In 1970, she returned to Rudolf, where she made most of her hats under his name.
She created the iconic Queen Mother’s favourite style, a hat with upturned brim and large plume embellishment.
During the later stages of her career, she decided to share her incredible skills and run classes to train the next generations of milliners.
She ran millinery classes at Shrewsbury House in Shooters Hill, London, attracting students from all over the world.
On the 9th June 2018 she was awarded an MBE for “Services to the Millinery Industry”.
She is now retired.
Read more about the incredible career of Rose Cory here >
Shirley Hex
Born in 1932 and by the age of 14, Shirley stated to work as a junior milliner
Worked for various prestigious milliners in London such as Otto Lucas and Mitzi Lorenz
In 1976, she became head of the millinery department at the prestigious couture house “Lachasse”, when she spotted a young talented milliner… Stephen Jones, who was studying fashion at St. Martins.
She then moved on to become the Chief Milliner for Frederick Fox, and retired after the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Diana, citing the amount of work and pressure almost gave her a nervous breakdown!
She became a lecturer after leaving Frederick Fox, teaching at Middlesex University, Newcastle School of Art, Harrow University, Surrey Institute of Art, and The Royal College of Art.
Shirley has made many hats for the catwalks of John Galliano, Body Map and Rifat Ozbek
She was a lecturer at the Royal College of Art, teaching many milliners, including Philip Treacy, Ian Bennett and Misa Harada, while still making hats for Her Majesty The Queen.
In 2012, she was involved in the visually spectacular event that was HATWALK, to celebrate 200 years of Admiral Nelson’s victory (and hat!)
She is now retired.
Read more about the incredible career of Shirley Hex here >
Giulia Mio
This information has been collected from various online sources. If you can add more information, please contact: giuliamio.millinery@gmail.com