Hatmaking

Though the improvements in technology provided benefits to milliners and the whole industry, essential skills, craftsmanship, and creativity are still required.

Many prominent fashion designers, including Rose Bertin, Jeanne Lanvin, and Coco Chanel, began as milliners.

Although the term originally applied to men, from 1713 "milliner" gradually came to mean a woman who makes and sells bonnets and other accessories for women.

[7] The millinery industry's apprenticeship culture is commonly seen since the 18th century, while milliner was more like a stylist and created hats or bonnets to go with costumes and chose the laces, trims, and accessories to complete an ensemble piece.

In the blocking process of a hat, milliners used push pins and a hammer to hold the adjustable string along the crown's collar and the brim's edge.

[11] Milliners often use buckram, a stiff cotton (occasionally linen or horse hair) cloth with a loose weave.

Millinery buckram is impregnated with a starch which allows it to be softened in water, pulled over a hat block, and left to dry into a hard shape.