Meet Amy Ward of Award Millinery Design in Studio City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Ward.

Amy, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve worked in the fashion industry my entire life, as a model, makeup artist and then photographer in NY, London, Paris and throughout Europe. I began designing and making hats seven years ago, but it’s something I always wanted to do. I love creating an unexpected bit of frivolity that lifts the spirit and makes people smile.

When I first started designing hats it was as a creative expression for myself. But the ideas for new designs kept coming, and since I only use the finest materials and all the work is done by hand, it got rather expensive. I also ran out of places to put them. Then one of the models I worked with suggested I sell my one-of-a-kind hats online. At the beginning my goal was to price them to just cover the cost of materials, to enable me to purchase new materials to make more hats. Little by little I raised my prices so that by the third year I actually showed a slight profit. But that didn’t count any compensation for my labor, as it takes me about three days to dye, dry, steam, block, shape, and trim each hat. I use the highest quality parisisal straw, which takes a master weaver 7-10 days to weave a piece of straw by hand that’s large enough for me to make one hat. The wholesale price for one piece of grade 1 parisisal straw is approximately $55 – $60, because the weaver needs to make a fair living wage.

There’s only one firm in the world that still weaves this exquisite straw by hand, and millinery suppliers all over the world bid to purchase it. Then milliners like myself purchase it from them.

I began making hats a year before the Royal Wedding of William and Kate, and several of my hats were purchased to wear at their wedding. Then came Royal Ascot, the Buckingham Palace Garden Party, the Kentucky Derby, Melbourne Cup and many weddings and other special events. My hats have also appeared in Victoria Magazine and this spring Disney Studios commissioned me to make nine hats for a video for the Oscars.

Has it been a smooth road?
I enjoy every step of the process, from designing to finding unique materials to trim my hats, to photographing them to list. My initial challenge was to get hat blocks in the shapes that I envisioned. The only way to do that was to carve my own. My signature shapes are a cross between a top hat, Victorian English riding hat and mad hatter, but made with unique and sometimes unexpected details. I may attach an antique English pocket watch face to the silk sash that goes around the crown of a hat. Or I occasionally trim a hat with natural bark, moss, twigs and seed pods. If I could choose one word to describe my designs it would whimsical.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Award Millinery Design – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
First of all, I do everything myself, by hand. I have no helpers, as my business is a ‘one woman show.

I am proud of the quality of my designs, the materials I use, my workmanship, and that I’m keeping the art of millinery alive. And although I have raised my prices over the years, I’m happy to keep them much lower than what milliners doing comparable work charge. I want almost everyone to be able to enjoy a beautiful wearable work of art. I create to give people pleasure, not for how much money I can get from them. So I charge a fair price, which is actually wholesale to the public, as fine shops purchase my hats and double the price to their customers. It comes down to art for art’s sake.

For special events, clients bring in or send me photos of their outfit, so I can make suggestions of options that I think would look lovely with their dress. Then we work together to create a hat just for them. Nothing makes me happier than getting a message from a client telling me they got so many complements on their hat, and it made them feel special and beautiful.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
My love affair with LA has never faded in the nineteen years I’ve lived here. There is nothing to dislike about this amazing place. My studio in the Hollywood Hills has a view across treetops and clay tiled roofs to the distant mountains to the north. While making my hats I get to feel the warm breeze of this gentle climate while experiencing a view that makes my heart sing.

Contact Info:

• Website: AwardMillineryDesign.com
• Phone: 818-980-2119
• Email: [email protected]

Image Credit:
Amy Ward

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