I spend my days among feathers and lace,
Shaping a crown for a lady's embrace.
I tame stubborn straws and press heavy blocks,
Hoping my gamble will sell off the racks.
My fingers are calloused from needle and thread,
Yet I never wear what I craft for your head.
Sometimes it’s feasting, and sometimes it’s lean,
But I paint with fine fashion behind the machine.
What am I?
Jacqueline started her career in Headwear in 1991, while living and studying Fashion Merchandising, in London UK. She hand painted her first Hat Collection of Felt hats, which she wholesaled to Harrods of Knightsbridge and Fenwick New Bond Street.
After decorating hats she started to study and learn how hats were blocked, and attended a beginners course in Millinery at The London College of Fashion.
"When I wanted to learn there really weren't a great deal of Milliners around, except for hat factories, which hadn't moved far from the Queen Mothers Hat style.
I am sure had fascinators been in vogue that would have been the avenue I went down.
Instead I learnt how to block hats...which was great but I didn't feel that it gave me the level of creative expression which I craved. I had learnt the principles of hand blocking but it was only once I started to learn the principles of Tailored Hat Making, that everything fell into place!"
In 1997 Jacqueline moved to Cape Town, where she was headhunted by two hat factories, as Head Designer. Later she entered the film industry as a wardrobe stylist, where her hat making and millinery skills naturally flourished.
"It wasn't the fashion industry, that taught me my trade... I learnt from Master Costume Milliners whose hats had long outlasted them. Beautiful pieces of art, that were as neat inside as they were outside. Precision patterns and cheeky tricks! I learnt from the best!
I started calling myself a Milliner after I had studied and worked in my trade for 19 years. I had already created hats for multiple movies by that time. I think it took me so long to call myself a Milliner because I knew a Milliner should be able to create any hat asked of them. They should be able to pull from multiple techniques with ease.
I don't agree with google, that anyone who makes women's hats is a Milliner. I always felt , and still do, that an authentic Milliner creates headwear by hand - no machinery! Hand sewing, hand blocking! You are able to use the title Milliner because you authentically do the job of a Milliner, which is different from a hat maker. You are a Milliner because you do the work by hand, which would be considered part of the Slow Fashion Movement today!
With the Industrial Revolution, the Milliners job was made redundant by the mass production of the hat factory. Machines took over the skilled work of the Milliner, the Milliner was employed as a trimmer, stitcher, and today factory owners call themselves Milliners.
"I had worked in several hat factories and I didn't want to use the word Milliner, until I felt I had earned it. In fact I was a real Mad Hatter before I considered myself to be a Milliner. I became a Milliner when I was a Mad Hatter!"
Today, Jacqueline would describe herself as a Hat Maker, a Milliner and a Costume Hat Couturier.
"I am not making a fuss about what a milliner does and how its done, because I think my Millinery skills and knowledge are superior to my Hat Making skills and knowledge, I know that's not true... it's quite the opposite actually.
I'm Old School because it is important if you are interested in learning the trade, that you understand and define the difference between the different methods hat building, especially if you have clients who are not aware that there is a BIG difference, you will need to educate them."
Jacqueline is known for her work in the South African film industry where she has been responsible for the headwear in feature films like, King Solomons Mines, Story Of an African Farm, Long Walk To Freedom.
Most recently she was responsible for the engineering and design of most of the hats, including Nihawks hat, Buggy's Hat and iconic Straw Hat for the One Piece Live Action, Netflix Series, Season 1.
Today Jacqueline is focused on SAFELY teaching and sharing the hat making and millinery knowledge she has amassed over the last 35 years.
"Having the knowledge of how to hand block a hat and how to draft a hat pattern has given me the ability to put both forms of headwear engineering together in order to satisfy the highest creative demands within the film and theatre industries.
Today I create Bespoke hats for private clients, Costume hats for tv and movies, Mini Wholesale Collections and I Teach Millinery and Hat Making Online."
In 2024, I started to record a few videos detailing how mercury poisoning had affected my body. I needed a way to record what had happened to me without the need to constantly be relooping the experiences.
The videos are a bit raw and I am a bit emotional but they were also the best therapy for me as a first step of letting go and moving on. If you are interested in watching click the YouTube link in the Header at the top of the page.
The dangerous fur felts which were made using Mercury were never allegedly made illegal in South Africa! This means that TODAY, some of our costume houses, in South Africa, stock toxic Mercury Poisoned fur felts.
I layered my body with Mercury from cleaning and shaping these fur felts for over 10 years. I suffered from the highest levels of Mercury poisoning from 2003 to 2013. In 2013 I started an eight year (Medically Supervised) Mercury Chelation treatment to save my life.
One year after treatment finished, in 2021 I was re-poisoned, as was my assistant, Nomava. We were both mass Mercury Poisoned while working as full time Crew Members for the Costume Millinery Department, of the Netflix / Film Afrika Live Action Adaptation of One Piece.
Due to my previous experience of being poisoned, I had been very careful not to use any steam on old fur felt hats, that I feared could be contaminated by mercury poison.
What we did do is use a damp cloth and clean the inner band and dust off the surface of the hats. Each time rinsing our cloth in a bowl of water. The mercury had been absorbed through our hands by wiping and using a water bowl. I never heated these hats and the mercury did not need heat to be absorbed into our bodies.
This was also the first time that Nomava had worked with hats, so I knew that we had pinpointed the source of the poison as both of our Mercury levels were equally off the charts and I had spent the last eight years in treatment to be mercury free.
Due to my refusal to work again with these fur felts hats, in 2024, as Production for One Piece, Season 2, began, Film Afrika was notified of my refusal and an investigation was finally done regarding my report that Nomava and I had been mercury poisoned during Season 1 of One Piece. Netflix / Film Afrika, tested the hats and materials I suspected were the source of the mercury poisoning.
The FUR FELT HATS TESTED POSITIVE FOR MERCURY POISON (this investigation happened in 2024) and I was notified privately by the company that had done the testing, that these materials were only to be worked with using the highest hazard protective procedures.
PLEASE DO NOT USE OR HANDLE OLD FUR FELTS STORED FOR DECADES FROM SOUTH AFRICAN HAT FACTORIES OR COSTUME HOUSES OR GRANDMAS CLOSET!
I have notified a few hat businesses and individuals regarding this danger and I started a YouTube channel where I have now begun to talk about my experience and to warn others!
Living the life of a Mad Hatter has been the hardest test this life has offered!
The process of removing Mercury from the body is a slow and often a highly traumatic experience. The more layered your poisoning has been, the deeper the mercury has set into your organs, which includes your brain. This kind of Madness is not for the faint hearted.
Going Mad, falling down the rabbit hole was easy! Climbing back up, has been pure hell!
I am sure South Africa is not the only country that continued to work with the Mercury Poisoned headwear. By all accounts, it was only the workers in the UK and USA who were strong enough to fight the factory owners to stop the importation of Mercury poisoned fur felts. Countries like Portugal, Spain, Italy, Australia etc. should also be careful!
It is for this reason that I will not be teaching the blocking of felts or fur felts at the Head Milliner. Safety First!
Please note: you won't taste it....you won't smell it...but it will devour every inch of your being and it will pull you so deep underground, your eyes won't be able to open in the natural light.
Thank you for your understanding!
NB: PLEASE NOTE DOCTORS GP'sARE NOT TAUGHT THE CORRECT PROCEDURE IN HOW TO TEST FOR LONG TERM MERCURY TOXICITY. A BLOOD TEST WILL SHOW NO SIGNS OF MERCURY UNLESS YOU WERE POISONED LESS THAN 48 HOURS AGO! Mercury does not stay in the blood stream, it sinks into your soft organs! PLEASE GO TO A DOCTOR WHO IS A HEAVY METAL TOXICITY SPECIALIST AND KNOWS HOW TO PROPERLY TEST FOR MERCURY POISON.
( if you have worked with these materials and have any concerns regarding your health and would like some advice as to how to be properly treated or tested, please feel free to send me a message via my contact page or contact me on WhatsApp)
