Today a milliner is understood to be the creator of stylish female hats, especially for wear at weddings, Ascot and other formal occasions. However, milliners did not specialise exclusively in producing and selling headwear until the late 19th century. Traditionally they were purveyors of haberdashery, trimmings, accessories and other small luxury articles – fancy goods for which the Italian city of Milan became famed in the 16th and 17th century, hence the term ‘milliner’. Such decorative items were integral to a lady’s costume and for many years a milliner was involved in all aspects of female dress.

Millinery emerged as a recognised trade in the mid-late 18th century when the term came into general usage and millinery establishments opened in fashionable urban shopping areas. Customers visiting the milliner’s shop would find a tempting array of quality merchandise, from lengths of lustrous silk and diaphanous muslin to intricate artificial flowers, lace, ribbons, spangles and fringe and accessories including gloves, muffs, ruffles and dainty caps. Goods were displayed on shelves behind the counters or secreted enticingly in labelled boxes, items of potential interest being taken down individually and presented to the client.

Far from being mere sales assistants, however, milliners had often created or hand-finished the articles that they stocked, their talents spanning the simple hemming of fine handkerchiefs, aprons and stoles to creating complex wired and stiffened bonnets and hats. Although no early guild organisation existed for this relatively new occupation, in recognition of the creative talents and diverse manual skills required, traditionally milliners learned their trade within the apprenticeship system, sometimes paying up to £40 for the apprenticeship – a significant sum over 200 years ago. However, from the early 1800s seven-year indentures declined and more often a girl would learn the trade through a less formal arrangement, typically beginning her training at about 14 years of age and completing it in around five years.

Originally milliners ornamented the dresses that had been fitted by the dressmaker and supplied complementary accessories, but as the fashion industry advanced and the demand for novelty grew more pronounced, their role expanded and milliners began to design and create entire ensembles, becoming arbiters of style and taste. Reflecting this trend, millinery became almost exclusively the preserve of women, their role as marchand des modes (the fashionable French term) growing ever more influential and prestigious at the high end of the industry. Expert milliners exercised artistic vision and flair, becoming intuitive

interpreters of new trends and creators of beautiful effects in dress, such as the world-famous modiste Rose Bertin, who devised captivating toilettes for the ladies of the pre-Revolutionary French court and many of the noble and royal households of Europe.

Victorian era
In the provinces where shops were fewer and a local store might stock a range of goods and services, the trades of millinery, dressmaking, drapery and haberdashery were sometimes combined, milliners effectively acting as fashion consultants to their clientele. Throughout the 1800s a close association existed between millinery and dressmaking and commonly milliners would both fashion bespoke garments and headwear for ladies and children, and sell dress ornaments and accessories – some operating from high street premises, others working from home. Victorian census returns often listed milliner/dressmaker as one occupation, this category ranking seventh out of all occupations in the 1851 census.

Census returns and trade directory entries confirm that the vast majority of milliners were female and indeed millinery was one of the few legitimate occupations open to working women. Unfortunately it was suggested in the past and still believed today that ‘milliner’ and ‘dressmaker’ were euphemisms for ‘prostitute’: certainly, at the lower end of the millinery and dressmaking industry wages were pitifully low, so that poorer workers may sometimes have resorted to prostitution to make ends meet. However, broad generalisations are misleading and historically inaccurate: for centuries there existed a marked prejudice against women who generated an income independently of their menfolk and, millinery being a predominantly female trade, it was easily linked in the popular imagination with the oldest-known female occupation of prostitution. Rather, in Victorian England dressmaking and millinery were generally considered more respectable than, for example, working in a mill or factory; therefore when we discover that our ancestors were recorded as milliners/dressmakers, we should assume that, more often than not, they were precisely that.

20th century
By the turn of the 20th century some women still operated as haberdashers and dressmaker/milliners, constructing, trimming, altering and repairing clothing and other dress items. The term ‘milliner’ remained fluid, but increasingly professionals had been specialising in hats, bonnets and caps, inspired by the rapid acceleration in fashion and soaring demand for ever more diverse modes. From the later 1860s/1870s onwards an extraordinary variety of headwear was becoming available at every level of the market, to suit all age groups and incomes; new models were launched seasonally and could be had in myriad colours and ornamented with various trimmings, to complement every fashionable outfit. Established milliners advertised regularly in ladies’ magazines such as The Queen and even pledged to post illustrated details of their designs free of charge to anywhere in the world.

The rise of the great department stores also expanded opportunities for milliners, fashionable establishments such as Peter Robinson and Jay’s boasting impressive millinery departments. Some women working for stores and large millinery houses undertook millinery piece work from home – tasks that they could fit around household chores. So completely feminised was the industry by the Victorian era, that any male milliners faced ridicule and were regarded as effeminate and untrustworthy: this explains why one practitioner, John Tacker, ‘Court and Artistic Milliner’, traded between the 1880s and early 1900s under the alias Madame Tucker Widgery.

During the Edwardian era, hats ranked particularly highly as status symbols and some of the largest and most ornate headwear originated between c1901 and 1914. Wealthy women bought numerous hats annually for all manner of occasions and, encouraged by the prestige surrounding luxury headwear, some society ladies set up as retail milliners, such as Heather Firbank, sister of the novelist Ronald Firbank. During the early-mid 20th century, millinery evolved into a highly-developed, structured industry and it became a more respected profession for women to enter. City department stores all had dedicated millinery departments and many high street shops also sold headwear. Increasingly, the goods were machine-made in factories, which meant that the term ‘milliner’ often denoted the shop assistant selling hats or the original designer, although some continued as independent makers and suppliers. It was also possible for women to buy plain hats and ornament them personally at home – a trend that could blur the boundaries between the professional and amateur. In 1909 The Art of Millinery: Practical Lessons for the Artiste and the Amateur by Anna Ben-Yusuf appeared – one of the first published guides explaining the complex techniques and diverse skills involved in millinery.

Until at least the 1950s a hat was a crucial element of a well-groomed lady’s appearance. Over the past half-century the role of the milliner has changed dramatically and is no longer a mass occupation, but for generations many of our female ancestors worked as milliners, supporting themselves as independent women or contributing to the household income through their skilled work.