NEWS
in memoriam Marie O’Regan
Marie O’Regan, who made hats for Queen Elizabeth II over several decades, passed away in March 2023 aged 97. During a career spanning over 70 years Marie worked with an array of illustrious designers, milliners and clients. With an in-depth knowledge of her craft as a hat maker and designer, Marie went on to become a revered tutor who inspired and trained a whole new generation of milliners.
Born in Turkey, Marie grew up in Paris, where she came as a small child after her Armenian family had moved to France as refugees. She had her first taste of millinery after a lesson at school when she went home and impressed her mother by steaming an old hat back into shape over a saucepan. Having left school at 14, and with the onset of world war in 1939, Marie started training as a milliner and earned money by knitting and crocheting. She went on to find employment with a succession of Parisian firms, including Orianne, Legroux Soeurs and Maud Roser, mainly working as a hat copyist. She then went to work for the milliner Gilbert Orcel, where she rose to become a designer. In 1959 Marie moved to England (without then speaking a word of English) to work for millinery entrepreneur Otto Lucas, who was looking for a designer for his hat salon in London. After two years, she left to work for the fashion house Dolores, who were licensed to design and sell hats with the Christian Dior label in the UK. Marie would travel to Paris to see the original Dior collections on the catwalk and pick up the designs which she would then use as a base to make a new hat collection for Dior in London.
8 | the hat magazine #97
Every so often at Dolores, students from fashion colleges would join the team to gain work experience. One day, a student asked if Marie might be interested in teaching at her
college, as she had learnt so much from her in just two weeks. This led on to Marie teaching at the London College of Fashion and later at the Royal College
of Art. As her reputation grew, Marie
was introduced to Ian Thomas, Queen Elizabeth II’’s dress designer, who was looking
for a hat designer. At this time, she was a part- time teacher while also working as a freelance designer for Frederick Fox and did not really need more work. However, she took the opportunity of making hats for the sovereign and began working closely with Ian Thomas. When he passed away, Marie continued making hats for the Queen for a few more years and received a royal warrant in 2005. Marie started giving private lessons in 1999
after some of her workroom technique articles were published in the first editions of The Hat Magazine. She continued to give millinery lessons at her home in London up until a year before she died, as she believed it was so important to share knowledge and to keep pushing oneself. Her high standards were greatly appreciated by
the milliners who she taught. Edwina Ibbotson, one of Marie’s former college students, remarked: “Marie was very strict with your stitches and made you redo things until it was exactly right. The vast coverage of millinery techniques she could teach was incredible, and second to none.” Marie’s work as a maker, designer and educator leaves a legacy that will continue to stimulate, inspire and inform generations to come.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
