Who wants to be a milliner?

A Ballyjamesduff milliner is set to feature on a TV ad campaign targeting fashionistas. Davina Lynch, who hails from Ballyjamesduff, is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning milliner based in Cavan Town and now her profile is set to rise further as her work appears on a series of ‘sting’ ads.
Davina has a reputation for creating elegant, feminine couture hats and head-pieces for all special occasions. All of Davina’s pieces are handmade, using both traditional and modern millinery techniques and are finished to the highest standard.
Since chocolate giants Cadbury’s teamed up with TV3’s Xposé to enlist five of Ireland’s brightest new fashion designers to develop designs to help promote the launch of their new chocolate bar, ‘Crispello’. This is where award winning designer Davina comes in.
It’s not surprising they turned to Davina as she has worked with London-based fashion duo Clements Ribeiro, whose work has been worn by Kylie and Nicole Scherzinger. It was in London where Davina took her course in millinery, in Central St Martin’s College. She honed her craft studying in Kensington and Chelsea College from which she graduated in July 2007 with a distinction.
Davina had two weeks to make the hat for Cadbury’s – the first week was spent researching and designing and then the hat would have been put together in five days.
“My bar was the ‘mini-bubbly’ and we got a brief,” Davina told the Celt. “They gave us the bar and some key words, like ‘milk chocolate’, ‘light’, ‘airy’, ‘silky’, ‘fun’, ‘joy’, ‘guilt-free’ and ‘fly away’.
“I worked from that, and I did a lot of research into it then. I looked at the bar and took it apart and looked at the outside and the inside of it, to get some inspiration from the bubbles,” she said.
“Then I started looking at bubbles and balls in art and in architecture and in different areas of fashion and glass wear as well.
“Pearls and crystals were used to represent the bubbles in the bar and then I have some origami in the hat, which forms a platform to hold the bubbles in place. The bubbles are gathered at the front of the hat and then scatter back towards a wing, which was created using some turkey and ostrich feathers.
“There are some pheasant feathers on the other side and gold turkey feathers and this brown colour is used to represent the chocolate. I also dip-dyed some of the golden turkey feathers, so there is a little bit of purple in them, which represents Cadbury’s. The main part of the hat is white to represent the innocence and the guilt-free [aspect] of the chocolate”, she said.
Davina’s hat creation for the campaign on TV3 will feature in the form of an advert sting – 10 seconds at the commencement of Xposé, five seconds during two breaks and 10 seconds again at the end. The stings will feature one-day-a-week for a year.
Davina has been a milliner now for approximately six years and worked from her home in Ballyjamesduff for a duration, and she also teachers millinery in Dublin, Meath and Cavan.
Davina does not just confine herself to hats, though, and also creates veils for brides.
“They usually pick out their dress first and then we can make a veil to match up with the dress and they are a unique one-off. I also create hats and head pieces for the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom and little pieces for the bridesmaids,” she said.
Men are not left out of the equation and Davina says that she has also started a menswear collection as well and it mainly features felt hats. She endeavours to source as much of her requirements in Ireland as much as possible and also gets material from Luton.
There is no definitive time to make a hat, because it depends on the size and the amount of detail trimming and style involved. Generally, it can take from one to three to four days.
Davina takes inspiration for her designs in a number of ways and her last creation was based on the seven lucky Gods of Japan.
“When I am designing for a client, I talk to them with a view to ascertaining what type of style they like. They would usually have their outfit with them and we would work from the colours in that.”
Millinery has become a lot more popular since the royal wedding and a lot more people are wearing head pieces and hats. When asked if she would like to design a hat for Kate Middleton, Davina said it would be a great honour, as she is a great style icon.
Obviously Princess Kate would only have a world class designer work for her, and Davina has shown she is amongst the best. She was short-listed for the prestigious ‘The Worshipful Company of Feltmakers of London Awards’ in 2007 and reached the semi-finals of the ‘Hat Designer of the Year’ competition in Paris in 2007 and 2012.
Davina says that Cavan Enterprise Board have been a “brilliant support”, adding, “I have been on a number of business courses with them”.
The courses seem to have paid off as Davina’s designs have been sold in River Island Stores in both the UK and Ireland.
Davina has worked with some of London’s top milliners, including Noel Stewart and Ian Bennett. Whilst working with Stewart, she helped work on hats for London Fashion Week.
However you don’t have to wait for the next fashion week to see Davina’s creations, if you tune into TV3’s Xposé you’ll hopefully catch a glimpse of her in action.