Mimi tips her hat to royalty
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AWARD-winning Inverness milliner Mimi Theobald confesses she has a particular ambition — to make a hat for Kate, the new Duchess of Cambridge.
Mimi, who acknowledges she is obsessed with hat-making, reckons that hats are enjoying a revival, particularly after this year’s Royal Wedding which showcased headgear of all shapes and creations.
The 26-year-old, who runs her own part-time business, Hats By Mimi, also reveals she would like to make hats for Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. "They try really hard," she said. "They make a lot of effort but don’t always get it right."
She particularly has in mind "that hat", worn by Princess Beatrice, which some commentators likened to an octopus or a pair of antlers — although Mimi refers to it as a "big pretzel thing".
"Looking at it as a milliner, it is absolutely beautiful," she says, but maintains it did not fit in with the overall look — and that is the key, according to Mimi, of Druid Temple Way, who is already making a name for herself when it comes to style.
Just last month, she won the title of best-dressed woman at the Epsom Derby Ladies’ Day while last year she was one of six finalists in Who Wants To Be a Millinaire at Royal Ascot which attracted more than 1000 entries from all over the world. Earlier this month, she welcomed a Royal Naval crew, including her brother, into Inverness wearing a nautically-themed outfit.
Surprisingly, millinery was not the first career choice of Mimi, whose father is Scottish and mother Taiwanese. After leaving Dingwall Academy, aged 17, she joined the Army and went to Portsmouth to study for her nursing degree.
It was there as a 19-year-old she first met her husband, Douglas, who is 17 years her senior and who was in the Australian Navy on a two-year exchange. She fell in love while taking part in an expedition to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
"I thought if I can put up with him when I have got altitude sickness and I’m looking terrible, then there must be something special!" she recalls.
The couple had a traditional Scottish wedding in Strathpeffer in 2006 and when it was time for her husband to return to Australia, Mimi left the Army to emigrate to Sydney — a move which proved pivotal for her career in millinery.
For after the birth of her daughter, Kitty — now aged four — Mimi looked for something to do from home.
"I wanted to do something creative. I picked up my clarinet but it wasn’t enough — I wanted to do something completely different.
"I have always liked fashion. My mum brought me up to follow fashion. So I went and bought some fabric and patterns."
She struggled with the terminology, however. "I got frustrated with it and the things I liked to make, you couldn’t really wear.
"I wanted to do something sculptural. I love hats — I have a hat head — and I came across a one-day class at a hat shop. I booked in and at the end of the day I had made a cloche-style hat. I was hooked. I have an obsessive nature."
She signed up for a two-year college course to study millinery but her big chance came when she attended a one-day workshop run by Neil Grigg, Australia’s most famous — and fearsome — milliner.
Mimi set out to make a turban-style hat which unusually featured veiling.
"I really wanted to impress him that day. He is very outspoken and he made the whole class laugh at me. He said it was a ridiculous idea. By the end of the class, quite a few women ended up leaving. It was too stressful for them."
But when Grigg saw Mimi’s hat, he was over the moon by the way she had experimented with mixing and matching different fabrics. Afterwards, Mimi informed him she wanted to work for him to learn more.
"College teaches you the principles of hatmaking which you really have to learn but it doesn’t teach you how to make things look really beautiful," she explains.
Working at Grigg’s studio a couple of days a week, she studied his approach. "He teaches you about lines. He would be very critical. He would tear a hat apart and tell me to start again. He taught me everything.
"The other thing I learnt from him is millinery is not just about making hats. That’s where a lot of milliners go wrong. It is about creating a look and a style.
"When people come to me, they have a dress. I always tell them to bring shoes and handbags. The key thing is accessories."
Mimi says that the wrong choice of hat can spoil the look. "It turns into the person is wearing a hat which is actually wearing them. A good milliner will make something which is suitable for the outfit. That is what I really enjoy."
Just as her career was taking off in Australia, Mimi and Douglas decided to move to the Highlands. Her parents were missing their granddaughter and Douglas had completed 22 years in the Australian Navy.
Mimi saw an opportunity to bring her skills to the UK where she feels the attitude towards hats tends to be traditional. "You get the same styles year in year out.
"Although Australia is a very casual country, they have some fantastic fashion designers. When you go to the races, the women are amazing. It has been disappointing going to the races here — Australia is leaps and bounds in front."
She believes, however, that millinery is undergoing a change thanks partly to the Duchess of Cambridge.
"Kate is wearing hats all the time which is great for the millinery industry. I think it has been suffering for quite a few years especially when the fascinator comes out — those where people wear a bit of wire with fluff in their hair. But people are becoming a bit more adventurous now."
Having set up her business in Inverness, Mimi is steadily carving out a name for herself, often through word of mouth.
Using wooden moulds, she works with the fabric to form the basis of her hats. She particularly likes using feathers — including turkey feathers sourced from a Black Isle farm — for decoration.
The finished creations, worn at all kinds of events from weddings to social occasions, can be regarded as unique works of art. "I never make something twice," she said. "When a client comes in, they always get a one-off."
