north east regional extra | December 8 - 14, 2021
nemedia.com.au
1.
December 8 - 14, 2021
Fashion in the fields
◆ ROLLING HILLS OF HOME: Lauren Ritchie wears her entry from the Myer Millinery Award 2020 - Fashions on Your Front Lawn with another headpiece nearby. PHOTO: Belinda Harrison
By BELINDA HARRISON “I’LL be wearing ribbons down my back this summer,” sang the character of Irene Molloy, widow and funloving milliner who owns a hat shop in the 1969 movie Hello Dolly. While Greta West milliner Lauren Ritchie’s hats don’t usually have ribbons trailing off them, they do have a certain flair and have graced the heads of many wellto-do types just like the ones Irene Molloy would have catered to in her 1890s New York boutique. Born and bred in the Wangaratta area, Lauren’s love for textiles began when she studied the subject at Wangaratta High School. “Gayle O’Keefe was my teacher at school and was a key influence and support for me to explore my creative passion as a career,” Lauren said. “In my final year of schooling, my sister Erin and I did a weekend short course at Albury TAFE run by a woman named Elizabeth Hemsley and I absolutely loved it. “Erin is a skilled dressmaker in her own right but a practising lawyer by day and has modelled a number of my headpieces for photo shoots usually wearing dresses we made under our partnership Two Sewing Sisters and we love working together.” When Lauren moved to Melbourne to study Fashion Design at RMIT, she found a millinery course at Kangan Institute. “I was able to do my university course during the day and millinery classes during the evening and I was so glad I didn’t have to choose to do one or the other,” she said. As part of her studies, Lauren completed work experience with Louise Macdonald who is one of Melbourne’s leading milliners. “After my work experience finished, Louise invited me to work with her for that Spring Racing season,” she said. “I learnt so much on the job and was excited to continue my formal studies and complete my Bachelor of Fashion and a further Certificate IV in Millinery.” Once upon a time, milliners specialised in designing or making hats and headpieces just for women, but today the term refers to hat making in general. “Milliners use wooden hat blocks that could be described as moulds that they shape and stretch material over to create their piece,” Lauren explained.
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