Making heads turn

Louth-based milliner Ian Bennett creates fabulous designs for all occasions and clients, including royalty, famous faces and style-conscious mothers of brides. Interview by Kate Chapman.

Life has come full circle for celebrated milliner Ian Bennett, who has opened a shop in the town where his passion for hat-making was first sparked.

As a child, Ian would always admire his favourite headpieces displayed in the Hat Box window, in Upgate, while walking to collect his brother from school – a story his mum recently shared with him after he returned to Louth, where he launched Ian Bennett Millinery on New Street last April.

Ian, who specialises in handmade, made-to-measure black silk top hats and occasion wear, trained at the Royal College of Art, and has already welcomed more than 1,000 customers through his shop doors since its launch.

He has worked for renowned designers including Philip Somerville, Stephen Jones and Frederick Fox and the English National Opera, while his hats have been worn by Queen Elizabeth II, singer Madonna, actors Robert Pattinson and Uma Thurman, plus numerous racegoers and mothers of the bride.

“People often say ‘hats don’t suit me’ but they’ve only tried one on. It’s like shoes – how many of those do you try before buying a pair? People have to try hats on – see what suits their face, the occasion and what matches their outfit,” explains Ian, who attended Lacey Gardens Junior School and Monks Dyke High School. “I build them a story – and make them something special, whether it’s for a day at the races, their birthday or a wedding. Whatever the occasion, I want them to feel truly fabulous.”

Eureka moment
Ian has always been creative and studied art and design at Ipswich College, when his family relocated to Suffolk due to his father’s job.

“My mum always tells people my brother was kicking a football around the garden, while I’d be sat at home drawing – I’ve always been artistic. I come from a very practical family: Mum was always using a sewing machine, and my uncles were painters, decorators and signwriters,” Ian said.

Ian developed a passion for textiles and creating 3D pieces, making shapes with clay, which once dry he would cover with fabric and felt. A visiting lecturer from the WI explained what he was doing was essentially millinery – without actually making hats. She invited him to take part in a day-long WI hat-making course and the rest, as they say, is history.

“I had a eureka moment, it was just incredible,” says Ian. “That was in 1992 and from that moment I’ve never stopped making hats! For the final outcome for each project during my course, I’d make a different style of hat or sculpt a piece of headwear.”

However, the only college in the country offering a millinery course above what he was already doing was the Royal College of Art, in London, which admitted one student each year. With nothing to lose Ian applied, but rather than produce a traditional portfolio to gain an interview, he presented his work in suitcases and hat boxes, which he’d sprayed gold.

“‘I made it look like I was going on an old steamship and filled these cases and boxes with my projects – I wanted it to look like I’d arrived,” he explains.

“It worked, I got an interview! The head of the college asked, ‘what’s all this?’ I replied that I wanted to make it look like the college was my destination, this was where I needed to be. I wanted it say ‘I’ve arrived and you’re not getting rid of me!’

“The interview lasted over an hour but was a blur. When I came out they asked what I’d do if I wasn’t given the place – I said I’d make hats anyway, whether they liked it or not! I don’t know how I had the nerve!”

Three students were taken onto the two-year MA course, which Ian describes as the ‘most incredible, hardworking, frustrating, rewarding and every word you can think of exciting’ experience.

Royalty calls
He then secured a job with milliner Graham Smith, in London, and spent several years working for some of the biggest names in the industry, as well as teaching.

In 2011 he was contacted by Queen Elizabeth II’s personal dresser Angela Kelly, and invited to Buckingham Palace to show the team co-ordinating the monarch’s outfits for the Diamond Jubilee how to dye feathers. Weeks later he was asked if he would like a job making hats.

“I worked above the Queen’s personal quarters three days a week, for about nine months. I met her, ten of us had a meeting with her in the audience room, with her dogs,” recalls Ian.

“It was just incredible – I’ve never met a person quite like her. You knew you were in the presence of greatness, she had this amazing ability to make you feel completely at ease.

“My feathers were on the headpiece that she wore for the opening of the London 2012 Olympics – watched by two billion people!”

Ian had his own shop in Pimlico for five years. When the lease expired, he returned to Lincolnshire after finding the perfect premises and since opening his shop he’s been kept busy with orders for bespoke creations, producing his collections and fitting in private tuition when he can.

“Lincolnshire people have been incredibly brilliant, really supportive. There’s a great little set of shops, I love being back here.

“My commute is only six minutes, there’s no more riding the tube, there’s fresh air and I can see the sky from the window as there are no high-rise buildings!” he smiles.

“It’s been incredible. I’m inspired by the countryside, although I always have been. Quite a lot of my inspiration comes from my grandparents, who had a council house in Louth.

“They grew the most amazing roses. The front garden was full of roses and dahlias. Every time I visited as a child, the roses were at head height to me. I just remember this little square patch being beautifully filled with these massive flowers.

“My style is quite clean and neat, but I always go back to flowers. All my pieces have flowers in them somewhere – they’re perfect for when you want to make customers feel the most fabulous that they can.

They’re delicate, yet give a presence.

“When I was living in London, I never knew what was going to happen – things are slightly more certain here. I’ve certainly been busy, but the saying goes, if you do something you love it’s not actually a job.”

Ian adds: “Millinery has never felt like a job to me – I love playing a part in people’s special days and making them feel fabulous.”

instagram.com/ianbennettmillinery

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