contract millinery part one: Shilling Shockers!
Occasionally, I am contacted through this blog (or sometimes as a result of trade journal publications or presentations at professional conferences) about doing contract millinery for various independent clients. I have done these kinds of jobs for regional theaters and dance companies, performance artists, burlesque starlets, television and film, and private clients. It's not a regular sort of thing--I would guess I do may be three or four contracts a year in this vein, typically in summer when I have the free time.
The typical duration of such a contract from initial inquiry to completed product is about two or three months. It can be quicker for things on a short deadline (summer theater companies), or longer depending on a number of factors. I mention that because I think it can be useful to know how long such things take. I get a certain amount of queries, often from potential private clients whose benchmark for purchasing comes from online shopping, order it Friday and it arrives Monday, in which people are surprised that a custom product needs a huge amount of lead time, or requires a rush fee.
I don't take these jobs, because I don't have time or energy to work for clients who do not understand what they are asking of me, and who are unwilling to pay for what the work is worth. This is a concession I see frequently made by costumers just getting started in freelance work at this level--because of their willingness and desire to do the work, they take jobs in which they will ultimately wind up being underpaid, overworked and frustrated. Hence this digression, which actually has nothing to do with the project I'm writing about, since this client had no such unreasonable expectations and was actually a dream client!
The project I'm going to begin writing about today has been in the works for several months, and this client clearly understood from the get-go but nature of such a commission in terms of time, for which I am grateful. I have really enjoyed this entire project, from its unusual challenges in terms of millinery structure and the performance needs of the finished product, to the excellent communication with the clients. Because there were some very interesting and unusual needs with respect to this hat, it's a perfect one to write up in this blog.
Some months back, I was contacted by the folks at Shilling Shockers: could I exactly replicate the witch's hat worn by their horror hostess "Penny Dreadful"? Replicate in size and style and cover fabric (black velvet), but at the same time structurally improve it? I was definitely interested in the project.
ETA: She has a blog full of upcoming appearances and fun fan art at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pennydreadful13!
The original hat was a mass-produced Halloween costume style hat, with an infrastructure of headliner foam. Headliner foam is the stuff covering the roof of your car inside the cab; it's a urethane foam about 1/8 of an inch thick bonded to a nylon knit fabric layer. The foam breaks down over time, which you can observe in old cars, how the roof lining begins to bag out and feel gritty and granular inside. This was happening to the inside of Ms. Dreadful's well-worn hat. In addition, the pointy crown was quite floppy and needed to be stuffed to stand up. Could I make the new hat with some sort of strong interior structure which would not disintegrate like the foam, and which would help the crown stand up better?
Certainly!
First order of the project, was for the folks at Shilling Shockers to ship me the hat to be copied. I measured the hat's dimensions and took an exact pattern from it. I studied its construction (fairly straightforward, mass-produced machine stitched production techniques), made notes about areas of potential structural improvement, and took a deposit towards the work. Then I shipped it back so they might continue to use it in filming and public appearances while I was making its replacement.
Our agreement was, I would source all materials and trimmings, and fold the cost thereof into the price of the hat. I mention that because sometimes a client wishes to provide her or his own fabric and/or trim, but because this hat is such an iconic design and fabric, it was easier for me to just locate some black velvet locally. The original hat was covered in a polyester black velvet, which is a great example of how, for certain applications, a synthetic fiber is the superior choice. This hat was still a dark black color, despite having been worn for years in harsh conditions such as exposure to bright light. Black dyes on natural fibers such as silk or cotton would not have remained so colorfast for so long under those circumstances. Because of the processing of color on synthetic fiber, dark shades such as black will be much more lightfast. For this reason, I sought out and purchased a brand-new piece of black polyester velvet.
Initially, I began thinking of this hat as a buckram structure reinforced with wire. The more I learned about the Shilling Shockers production, though, the less appropriate buckram seemed to be. For example, the actress who portrays Ms. Dreadful obviously performs in filmed segments for the show, but she also has a fairly extensive public appearance schedule, promoting the show or serving as a celebrity guest in a range of different venues--schlock horror fan conventions, parties and nightclub events tied to relevant themes such as Halloween, promo events with a spooky connection like haunted house attractions and so forth.
I realized that the likelihood is high that this hat will, perhaps several times in its life, need to appear under UV light. Regular buckram (and millinery wire, and ice wool, and French elastic) is white, and will most definitely fluoresce, even through a thick black velvet, under UV light. For a moment, I entertained the possibility of using black buckram (and black wire, black ice wool, and black French elastic), but nixed that idea upon further analysis. All buckram softens and reshapes with the application of heat and moisture, so this hat, which will be worn under the bright lights of the film studio, and potentially outdoors in hot sun or adverse weather at a public appearance, cannot be made of buckram, white or black. It would not retain its stability, and black buckram “bleeds" its black color when wet. No good!
So, what to do?
I believe my solution for this hat is the best for the client's needs... ( Read more... )
The typical duration of such a contract from initial inquiry to completed product is about two or three months. It can be quicker for things on a short deadline (summer theater companies), or longer depending on a number of factors. I mention that because I think it can be useful to know how long such things take. I get a certain amount of queries, often from potential private clients whose benchmark for purchasing comes from online shopping, order it Friday and it arrives Monday, in which people are surprised that a custom product needs a huge amount of lead time, or requires a rush fee.
I don't take these jobs, because I don't have time or energy to work for clients who do not understand what they are asking of me, and who are unwilling to pay for what the work is worth. This is a concession I see frequently made by costumers just getting started in freelance work at this level--because of their willingness and desire to do the work, they take jobs in which they will ultimately wind up being underpaid, overworked and frustrated. Hence this digression, which actually has nothing to do with the project I'm writing about, since this client had no such unreasonable expectations and was actually a dream client!
The project I'm going to begin writing about today has been in the works for several months, and this client clearly understood from the get-go but nature of such a commission in terms of time, for which I am grateful. I have really enjoyed this entire project, from its unusual challenges in terms of millinery structure and the performance needs of the finished product, to the excellent communication with the clients. Because there were some very interesting and unusual needs with respect to this hat, it's a perfect one to write up in this blog.
Some months back, I was contacted by the folks at Shilling Shockers: could I exactly replicate the witch's hat worn by their horror hostess "Penny Dreadful"? Replicate in size and style and cover fabric (black velvet), but at the same time structurally improve it? I was definitely interested in the project.
ETA: She has a blog full of upcoming appearances and fun fan art at
pennydreadful13! The original hat was a mass-produced Halloween costume style hat, with an infrastructure of headliner foam. Headliner foam is the stuff covering the roof of your car inside the cab; it's a urethane foam about 1/8 of an inch thick bonded to a nylon knit fabric layer. The foam breaks down over time, which you can observe in old cars, how the roof lining begins to bag out and feel gritty and granular inside. This was happening to the inside of Ms. Dreadful's well-worn hat. In addition, the pointy crown was quite floppy and needed to be stuffed to stand up. Could I make the new hat with some sort of strong interior structure which would not disintegrate like the foam, and which would help the crown stand up better?
Certainly!
First order of the project, was for the folks at Shilling Shockers to ship me the hat to be copied. I measured the hat's dimensions and took an exact pattern from it. I studied its construction (fairly straightforward, mass-produced machine stitched production techniques), made notes about areas of potential structural improvement, and took a deposit towards the work. Then I shipped it back so they might continue to use it in filming and public appearances while I was making its replacement.
Our agreement was, I would source all materials and trimmings, and fold the cost thereof into the price of the hat. I mention that because sometimes a client wishes to provide her or his own fabric and/or trim, but because this hat is such an iconic design and fabric, it was easier for me to just locate some black velvet locally. The original hat was covered in a polyester black velvet, which is a great example of how, for certain applications, a synthetic fiber is the superior choice. This hat was still a dark black color, despite having been worn for years in harsh conditions such as exposure to bright light. Black dyes on natural fibers such as silk or cotton would not have remained so colorfast for so long under those circumstances. Because of the processing of color on synthetic fiber, dark shades such as black will be much more lightfast. For this reason, I sought out and purchased a brand-new piece of black polyester velvet.
Initially, I began thinking of this hat as a buckram structure reinforced with wire. The more I learned about the Shilling Shockers production, though, the less appropriate buckram seemed to be. For example, the actress who portrays Ms. Dreadful obviously performs in filmed segments for the show, but she also has a fairly extensive public appearance schedule, promoting the show or serving as a celebrity guest in a range of different venues--schlock horror fan conventions, parties and nightclub events tied to relevant themes such as Halloween, promo events with a spooky connection like haunted house attractions and so forth.
I realized that the likelihood is high that this hat will, perhaps several times in its life, need to appear under UV light. Regular buckram (and millinery wire, and ice wool, and French elastic) is white, and will most definitely fluoresce, even through a thick black velvet, under UV light. For a moment, I entertained the possibility of using black buckram (and black wire, black ice wool, and black French elastic), but nixed that idea upon further analysis. All buckram softens and reshapes with the application of heat and moisture, so this hat, which will be worn under the bright lights of the film studio, and potentially outdoors in hot sun or adverse weather at a public appearance, cannot be made of buckram, white or black. It would not retain its stability, and black buckram “bleeds" its black color when wet. No good!
So, what to do?
I believe my solution for this hat is the best for the client's needs... ( Read more... )