The Coronation sees Yorkshire milliners get ahead with best SS23 hats for weddings, the races and right royal events

Her own invitation to the Coronation might have got lost in the post, but Harrogate milliner Jenny Roberts has sent a few hats along to attend, worn by customers who have actually been invited.

“People have chosen nothing too showy,” she says. “You want to portray your personality when you are going for a big day like that, but you don’t want to over-egg it.”

Jenny Roberts Millinery is also joining 21 other milliners for a British Hat Guild and Jockey Club collaboration called Crowning Glory: A Milliners’ Celebration of All the King’s Colours, shown at Newmarket this weekend and at The Derby at Epsom Downs on June 3. Made in combinations of scarlet, purple, black and gold, the colours of the royal racing silks, the hats will be auctioned off for Brain Tumour Research.

Jenny is now making hats mainly for races and weddings but also for those attending investitures at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, some delayed by the pandemic. “You have to pitch it right,” she says. “Often smaller, because they want to see what they are doing, and they need something they are totally comfortable in and can almost forget about, but will still look fantastic in the pictures.”

Jenny also offers a hire service, from £94 for a week’s loan. “All the designs are unique and made using couture methods, so people can get something really special,” she says.

In terms of trends, colour is king with vivid greens, yellows, oranges and bright pink. “The Pantone colour of the year has been Viva Magenta, but we are also seeing pastels and neutrals, candy colours, lilacs, sages, baby blues,” Jenny says.

Look out for raw woven and straw fabrics, Chanel-style tweeds, stripes and geometric patterns, colour blocking, shirring, smocking, pleating and texture, while vintage looks also reign with Art Deco and tea dress themes.

The halo crown is still a popular style but moving more towards a pill box shape without a crown. Button and brim styles are popular, as are boaters.

Originally from Bolton, Jenny graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a degree in Fashion with Textiles and worked on the Designers at Debenhams brand. In 2003, she took an HNC in Millinery at the then Leeds College of Art, now Leeds Arts University, and began making hats from home. In 2014 she moved into her studio and showroom at Cold Bath Place in Harrogate, where she works with her assistant Beth and placement assistant Zara and also runs courses (she still has online students across the world, too).

“People are keener than ever to go out, have a good time and dress up and invest themselves in a sense of occasion - experiences seem to be top on people’s lists,” she says.

Fellow Yorkshire milliner Sherry Richardson of Hats by Sherry joins Jenny in A Hat for All Seasons, an exhibition at Bankfield Museum in Halifax that shows the progression of headwear from the bonnets and toppers of the 18th century to the baseball caps and Ascot showstoppers of today.

Based in Barnsley, Sherry Richardson makes bespoke special occasion hats and headwear chiefly for brides and mothers of the bride and groom, working from her log cabin studio at her home.

Sherry, who had previously worked as a community education tutor and then in schools as part of the Barnsley special needs team, became a milliner in the mid-1990s, after reading an article in the Yorkshire Post Women’s section about a millinery course running at what was then Huddersfield Polytechnic. She enrolled and, on completion, started making hats on a part-time basis, finally becoming a full-time professional milliner in 2018.

“I was always artistic and I always enjoyed making and creating,” she says. “I am inspired by nature. I have lived and worked in a rural part of South Yorkshire most of my adult life and it is the countryside around me which has inspired me.”

Her crown design Gloriana is a particularly striking example of this style of her work, made using recycled and semi-precious beads. As a student, Sherry sold a crown tiara to the Tower of London, to use in its educational department. “I do still like to do a crown every now and then,” she says.

Catherine, Princess of Wales, is a modern hat wearer she admires. “I love quirky vintage styles,” she says, adding that millinery has changed significantly since she began making hats, fascinators and headpieces.

“Hats were often snug on the head and very fitted,” she says. “Now there is a tendency to have them away from the head, maybe a sculptural shape that is more of a statement.”

Hats by Sherry caters for all customers, whether they are looking for classic styles or something more quirky. “With bespoke, I work around people’s personalities. They come to me often when they have an outfit already and you already see part of their personality.

Her hats can start from £100 and can go up up to £550, depending on the work needed, and she asks for six weeks’ notice.

Sherry passes on her millinery skills and gives an insight into her life’s work through her workshops and tutorials. She ran both children’s and adult workshops on the exhibition’s opening day and will return for her talk on The Art of Millinery on June 15. As for what type of hat she would wear to the Coronation, she says: “I would definitely go for a tilted vintage.”

Sculptural Headpiece – The Joy of Sinamay – two-day course on May 27 and June 3, 2023, see: www.hatsbysherry.co.uk, Facebook: Hats by Sherry, Instagram: @sherryrichardson6

Jenny Roberts Millinery is at Cold Bath Place in Harrogate and at jrmillinery.co.uk. Instagram: @jennyrobertsmillinery, Facebook: @jrmillinery and School of Millinery with Jenny Roberts

A Hat for All Seasons is on display at Bankfield Museum, near Halifax, until September 30, 2023. See museums.calderdale.gov.uk

To see and bid for the King’s Colours Coronation Hat auction, visit https://www.braintumourresearch.org/fundraise/hat-auction