Artist's Items:
Wayne Wichern Millinery
What do you enjoy most about your work? What are some of the challenges?
The most obvious answer would be the creative aspects of the design work itself, but what has proved most interesting over time has been turning different creative experience and skills into a viable and vital artistic business. I wish that I had taken basic bookkeeping and business marketing classes when I was in high school or college, or maybe at least paid attention in the classes I did take of that nature. I am grateful I took at least a half-year of typing. The business of self-employment has been the most challenging. Taxes, employees, customers, cash flow, supplies, you name it, just when you feel that you understand your obligations it all changes. With all the demands of my business I've learned to appreciate what creative ability really means. In this work I am constantly challenged to develop new skills which lead me in new directions.
What drew you to your work? Did you always love hats?
I grew up on a farm in Cody, Wyoming. After graduating high school in 1975 I moved to Seattle, Washington where I enrolled in the Floral Design program at South Seattle Community College. After finishing the program I worked for several years in a floral shop in Bellingham, Washington. During that time I became interested in classical ballet. I was encouraged by my dance instructor to pursue more intensive and professional training in NYC. So, in May 1979, I packed up for NYC. I studied and trained for several years, eventually dancing in regional companies in upstate NYC, Pennsylvania and Louisiana. During several seasons of performance I found that I was much more interested in costume and fashion design than dance. In the 1985 I returned to Seattle and was able to find employment with several costume shops but found the seasonal economics frustrating. I eventually settled into a full time visual display position with the former Frederick and Nelson Department Stores. In tandem with my full time employment at Frederick & Nelson I began studying millinery with John Eaton. John was an acclaimed and successful Seattle milliner and a highly respected teacher as well. When the millinery industry declined in the mid sixties he closed his retail shop and continued his design interests in custom clothing, millinery, and teaching from his private studio.
Describe your training as a milliner - what was the process, how long did it take? Were there particular aspects of your training that were especially useful to enable you to make such beautiful and creative hats?
Frankly, I studied quite sporadically with John as I was working full time and had many interests besides my curious interest in millinery. In 1985 the market for millinery was still extremely depressed and depressing and I held no illusions that millinery design could be a viable or stable income. I didn't have any formal intentions; I simply enjoyed the idea of making hats.
I worked with John for about two years during which time he developed several serious health complications. He had to stop teaching and it was likely he would not be able to teach for some time, if ever again. During a visit with him one day, I asked if he would be willing to let me supervise the group of students that had been attending classes, many of us had projects that remained unfinished when he stopped teaching. John remarked, "Wayne, I think you should buy this equipment and teach millinery yourself." So I did, consequently, I am primarily self-taught. I always acknowledge that John taught me the basics of millinery and inspired the rest. John was a very inspirational, creative and dedicated teacher. He passed away many years ago now and I and others miss him dearly. I have always worked to emulate his generous style in my own teaching. What John gave me when he advised me to teach others, was an extremely rich environment for my own learning. In my experience there is nothing more useful to a teacher than working right along with students to develop new ideas or to solve a design problem.
Growing up on a farm in Wyoming hasn't hurt either. I am extremely resourceful. Much of the equipment needed to work in the hat business is invented on the spot or found and reinvented. Daria Wheatley, a milliner who has worked with me for many years refers to me as the “cowboy contractor”. In many ways being located on the West Coast and relying on local markets for supplies has made me quite versatile. I order certain supplies from the millinery suppliers back East, but not having everything at my fingertips has required a certain honing of my creative skills using what is local and at hand.
What (or who) inspires your work? Do you have sources that you go to for "creative recharging"?
Leaves, I have an interesting thing for leaves and other natural things like seedpods, feathers, shells. You can see leaves interpreted in many in my hat trims. I have an interesting collection of hat blocks, which inspire me as well. Most of these blocks are quite old and therefore considerably dated for contemporary design work. The inspiration comes with the challenge to use these old and familiar blocks in new and interesting ways.
People or rather personalities interest and inspire me. I have a wonderful client who has rather flamboyant taste. I was inspired to make a hat for her, without discussing it first. I planned to take the hat with me to a trunk show and she would see it there. Well I was a bit dashed as she was not able to make the event. So I called her when I returned and suggested that I send the hat to her on approval. When I mentioned that the hat was red with black trim she said " Oh my dear, I don't wear red". I suggested that I send the hat anyway, she could try it on and if she liked the style, I would make it in a color she would wear. The day she received the hat she called me to say "Wayne, This morning, I opened the box and pulled out this beautiful hat thinking, I don't wear red". "Well my dear, I have tried the hat on and I haven't taken it off all day, in fact I am calling you on my cell phone from Nordstrom. I'm looking for an outfit to go with it. Everyone has told me that I look wonderful, so I guess do I wear red".
Meeting with a client, seeing the outfit, discussing the events or plans for the wearing of the hat, will generate most of my design direction. Sometimes just the materials I happen to be working with. I rarely draw or sketch preferring to let the materials find their way into a hat. I have come to think of myself as a sculptor.
Tell me some of the defining characteristics that make a hand shaped Wayne Wichern creation very different from a "manufactured" hat.
A “manufactured hat” or “machine blocked hat” is usually rather obvious in design and stiff in styling, and will only fit a few people both in the actual fit and the design proportions.
As a custom designer it is my job and requires my skills to accommodate for a variety of sizes and shapes of people. When you work with a designer, something most people are not familiar with today, you are employing that designer’s expert skills and experience. You will probably pay more for the handcrafted hat. There are many talented independent designers who sell direct and through specialty stores across the country who’s job it is to create a wonderful hat for anyone who truly desires to wear a hat.
Two common remarks I hear when people are discussing hats are, "Oh, I can't wear hats, they never look good on me" or "I can't wear a hat because I can’t find one to fit me." Typically this is an excuse people employ to excuse themselves from wearing a hat. Fifty to sixty years ago people were more familiar with custom work and educated about what looked good and why it did. The most difficult problem I encounter as an independent designer is our cultures lack of education and knowledge about creative design and how it needs to be priced to be viable vital business. Expect to pay a bit more and you will get a great hat.
Describe the process of making a hat in general terms - how do you begin, how long does it take, how do you decide what materials to use. With custom work - do you measure the customer's head first and study their features - how do you match the hat to the person and their sense of style?
I decide on a shape based on the blocks (wooden hat forms or molds) in my collection. Then using steam, water or heat I block the felt, straw, or material over the wood form. This need to dry for the required time usually 24 hours. Hats are created in stages so I block several designs and while those are drying I work on trimming or embellishing others. After the designs dry I remove them from the blocks and cut away any unneeded selvedge. I save this scrap for future trimming ideas, braids, leaves, flowers, etc. A headsize ribbon is sewn in and I proceed with the trimming or embellishment of the hat. This may take several days as the hat and trim materials need to gestate if the trim wasn't determined in advance.