Vintage Millinery Veil

"The art of making flowers was said to begin during the 12th century in Italy when they made flowers by hand from silk cocoons. By the 14th century the French had taken the art of hand making flowers and really began perfecting the techniques and materials.  It was said that in 1775 Marie Antoinette was given a single silk millinery rose, and because it looked so real she fainted! Eventually the craft made its way to England and then on to America. The Victorians were huge fans of anything floral and over the top, so at that time Milliners were a part of every community."

"Starting around the 1970's is when it all began to change, we discovered how to make these flowers, that for all these centuries had been made by hand, by machine. The beautiful velvet and silk fabrics used for the petals were replaced with polyester and synthetics.  The stems were assembled with plastic and no longer laboriously hand wrapped. We could make them cheap.  So the art of hand crafting these beautiful flowers pretty much ended and this is what makes collecting millinery fleurs so desirable today."  

~ Heather, prettypetals.typepad.com

Creating treasures using vintage millinery fleurs is a true art today.

Rachel Pallas is a talented Washington state artist who takes these fragile, silky pieces of history and weaves them into small rings of sheer beauty.   

She recently made this pale, mauve millinery veil for me.

Tiny baby blue velvet forget-me-nots are tucked between large, floppy, frayed edged silk petals.
Rachel is carrying on the history and skills of using these beautiful fleurs in millinery veils, wreaths, and petite veils.
I can truly see her one-of-a-kind veils on the chignoned heads of brides to be
or on the tresses of little girls attending their first garden party... 

But I'm just having fun moving this sweet hoop of silk around the house from room to room.

If you haven't met Rachel yet,
be sure to visit her beautifully inspiring blog, Shabby French for Me.
You will find yourself swept away by her photography and her talent for creating breathtaking vignettes
in her beautiful west coast home that overlooks the Sound.

Thank you so much, Rachel ~

You are such an inspiration!

Beginning to work on my Inspiration Board.

~  Blessings  ~

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