TRAVELS WITH MY HAT
House of Adorn
House of Adorn started out as an online business, based in a
warehouse. Founder Kim McMillan’s intention was to continue using the same space but when customers
kept asking if they could come over to view the materials, she decided to open a showroom in the warehouse.
”Like a lot of young Australians, my husband and I travelled to London and lived there for a couple of years. During the daytime I had an office job but in my spare time, I made evening-wear headpieces which I sold at the markets on weekends. What started out as a hobby for extra cash turned into a side business. My pieces were stocked in Fortnum & Mason, fashion boutiques and I also designed and made hats for ASOS. During my time in London I met a lot of suppliers. Many of the materials they sold were not readily available in Australia at the time. Online shops were new then and I was very interested in starting an online business myself. So when I returned to Australia in 2010 I decided that was a good time to fill a gap in the Australian millinery market. I also wanted to create an online store that made shopping easy and accessible for everyone in Australia and world-wide.”
At first, Kim started selling basics such as sinamay, feathers and millinery trims. Trading under the name of ‘The Feather Shop’, she soon travelled to different countries to visit factories and find new suppliers. Her product range expanded quickly and she started to include other materials such as dance fabrics and trimmings. It was time to continue under a new brand name that was more encompassing: House of Adorn. “Our focus is on supplying the latest materials, trims, colours and prints.
66 | the hat magazine #75
The colourful material
collections of House of Adorn.
Together with my team we’re always trying to spot new trends. Our company now supplies not only milliners, but also fashion and bridal designers, as well as dance schools and the film/theatre industry. When fashion designers are looking for a specific kind of material or colour, we try our best to make it available for upcoming seasons. We recently introduced a whole range of thermoplastics to our offering. These are very new to the millinery industry and have many exciting and creative possibilities. They are fun and easy to work with, perfect for sculpting and saves a lot of time when blocking. Leather is also doing very well at the moment, both for autumn/winter pieces and for making flowers and trims for spring/summer designs. We now offer one of the biggest selection of colours, metallics, prints and laser cut motifs.” Another focus of House of Adorn is education. They work closely with the Hat Academy, as well as with a lot of schools
in Australia including high schools and TAFE’s. “We offer discounts to students but also organise workshops ourselves in springtime. A lot of customers want to learn new skills but they don’t want to attend school for long periods. Our one- day workshops are perfect for them and we invite different teachers in to teach.” Kim is very passionate about her business. “Our aim is to make it as easy as possible for our customers to get exactly what they are after. Nowadays there are so many websites such as Etsy and eBay; it’s a lot easier for customers if they can come to just one place to shop for everything they need.”
For more information, see
www.houseofadorn.com
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