The company is the working dream of its founding milliner, Laura Del Villaggio, who fell for hats at an early age. As a young teen, Laura began seeking out vintage clothing as a way to individualize her appearance. Along with clothing, Laura also found fabulous hats from the early twentieth century. Hats soon outnumbered the vintage dresses in her closet.

Laura continued to pursue fashion and her love of vintage clothing, graduating from UT Austin with a double major in History and Apparel Design. Her passion for both then led her to a graduate program in Museum Studies: Costume and Textiles at the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Laura discovered that F.I.T. also offered a Millinery Certificate program through the Accessories Design department. Over the next two years, Laura devoted herself to learning hat-making, as well as textile and costume history, conservation, and exhibition.

Having enjoyed stints in both New York and San Francisco, Laura is currently back in Austin, Texas where she loves being a woman of many hats. She balances her roles as parent and partner with self-employment: custom millinery and historic clothing conservation and consultation. In addition, Laura also holds a long-time position at Amelia's Retro-Vogue & Relics and occasionally tours with the theater productions of A Ride with Bob, and Tuna Does Vegas doing costume and wardrobe work.

Whatever hat you choose to wear (literally or figuratively) it is always an intriguing and delightful reflection of the individual.

Heartfelt thanks to:

Whitney Lee Photography for the model photography; Rachel, our lovely model; Ed Carter for some detail images; Jane at Amelia's Retro-Vogue & Relics for providing vintage clothing and jewelry for the shoot and tons more; Deborah at Deborah Main Designs for sharing her gorgeous collection of ribbons and trims; Heide for putting the sparkle in my eyes, and most importantly Pasquale for all the love, support and this amazing new website!
xo Milli