Saving heritage craft from extinction with 17 Guinea project

The Culture Trust Luton embarks on a unique and ground-breaking project that supports British millinery, performance, fashion, museums, education, and critically-endangered heritage crafts. The 17 Guinea sewing machine is at the centre of the project, which will preserve hat making skills for future generations.

Heritage Crafts recognise straw hat making, hat plaiting and hat block making as Critically Endangered Crafts and hat making as an Endangered Craft, which is why the success of this project is crucial to prevent the extinction of millinery skills.

Luton is the beating heart of the hat making industry in England. There were over 400 hat manufacturers in Luton during the 1800s, with the majority of them straw hat manufacturers and suppliers. The level of production was astounding – at one stage, in the 1930s, they were producing over 70 million hats each year! The 17 Guinea machine would have been a common-place piece of equipment in these factories and sadly many were lost or left unused since the decline of the industry; straw hat making has been affected by the lack of access to these machines and the decline in skills. The machines are not made in the UK, so only limited second-hand machines are available and they are expensive and often missing parts.

Few people are left with the skills to make straw hats - currently only seven people are listed as straw hat practitioners by Heritage Crafts! Even fewer have knowledge of the 17 guinea so there are limited opportunities to pass on the skill.

However, this innovative project seeks to re-establish lost skills by salvaging old machines, restoring them to working condition, then loaning them to milliners through a bespoke training programme.

Yona Lesger, Curator of Significant Collections, Hat Industry & Headwear said “The Culture Trust is actively supporting the hat industry by offering workshops, inspiration study days, display venues and curatorial expertise. The 17 Guinea project is an innovative and exciting way of repurposing unaccessioned museum items, and bringing them back to life and use. The rare and expensive nature of 17 Guineas makes them one of the most in-demand items we can offer the industry. The project is groundbreaking in curatorial innovation and flips the traditional relationship between museum and maker.”

“While focussed on heritage millinery skills, the project will have positive ripple effects across British industries. Most milliners work as freelancers, so the machines and training support small businesses. Theatrical milliners such as Sophie Lambe, Claire Strickland, Liz Crossman, Pip Mayo and Sue Crowle will ensure the results of this project are seen across film, TV, theatre, and opera houses (including at Welsh National Opera), particularly in period dramas for which the UK sets the standards of excellence. Lauren Martin is a researcher/maker who creates historically-accurate pieces for exhibitions, thereby offering a unique skill to the museum sector. Fashion milliner Misa Harada is using the machine to create cutting-edge fashion headwear that will show on catwalks across the world, as well as in fashion magazines. The Morley College millinery course, under guidance of Vesna Pesic, has received one of the machines, thereby preparing its students to incorporate straw hats in their future work.” 

Yona said “Using the 17 Guinea machines offers authenticity, enabling theatrical milliners to achieve historically-accurate straw hats and bonnets; for film and TV, cameras can zoom in so close that every stitch is visible.”

Liz Crossman works as a milliner and costume prop maker for film, TV and theatre. Her work ranges immensely from very outlandish concepts to more traditional makes, giving her the ability to understand alternative ways of using all sorts of materials and equipment to suit that particular job. Her film and theatre credits include: Star Wars: Andor (Season 2, 2023), The Essex Serpent (2020), Les Miserables (2018 and 2019), Follies (2019), Spiderman: Far From Home (2018), The Book of Mormon (2017 and 2018) and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016-). She commented “I’m extremely grateful to Yona and the Culture Trust for reinstating these precious 17 Guinea machines and making them available to people such as myself, as working with straw has become a rare and ancient craft. I’m excited to hone those skills and explore what is possible by combining straw and costume.”

With plans to find and restore more machines and continue to expand the lending programme, this project ensures a brighter future for millinery crafts. If you have an interest in following the project updates, please follow instagram @culturetrustuk #17Guineaproject or get in touch with Yona at Wardown.

If you have a 17 Guinea machine you would like to donate, please email Yona on museum.gallery@culturetrust.com