Classic examples
A passion for vintage French fashion led award-winning milliner Suzanne Gill to launch her Vine & Moor classic couture collection in AW Hainsworth Yorkshire wool cloth. Cate Russell reports.
FASHION was always a passion when Suzanne Gill was a schoolgirl growing up near Wetherby, but she was told she couldn’t sew or draw so there was no point in pursuing a career in the industry she loved. Now, after an award-winning millinery business, she’s swapped hats for classically tailored skirts, fitted jackets, bold dresses, wide trousers and long line coats for her debut fashion collection, Vine & Moor. The brand features 10 pieces crafted from wool produced in the mill of Royal Warrant-holder AW Hainsworth in Pudsey.
“I accidentally fell into the fashion industry years after I left school,” says Suzanne, 52, who initially worked in administration in the justice system.
She moved north to Aberdeen aged 22, with her husband, then lived for a couple of years in Azerbaijan, where they had two daughters. “We moved back to Yorkshire to Ampleforth in around 2007 and there was no childcare in the area and not a lot of employment,” Suzanne recalls.
When she saw a millinery course at night school at York College, she thought she’d give it a go.” It was funny because my parents discovered that one of my ancestors was a milliner in Cheltenham at the turn of the last century. “Sadly, the course lost funding after a year, so my tutor suggested I move to Leeds College of Arts, now Leeds Arts University, to do the HNC in millinery, which was a big jump after a onenight-a-week class.”
This led to her accidentally lucky move into fashion. She graduated with distinction in 2010 and set up Suzanne Gill Millinery at home, making bespoke hats. Following her ancestor’s lead, she won the best hat at Ladies’ Day at Cheltenham Festival in 2011. “That was a huge deal for me, and on the back of that I was asked to showcase my hats at the Great Yorkshire Show, and I later won an International Hat Award for creativity,” she says.
Working with leading brands such as LK Bennett and local independent designers led to her elegant headgear being featured numerous times in regional and national publications. She quickly established a local and international client base.
Suzanne relocated with her family back to Azerbaijan in January 2013, for three years this time, where she taught millinery skills to expat and local women and designed and made costumes for numerous productions at the International School of Azerbaijan.
“I’m still teaching adults now at York Learning, which means I have come full circle. It’s great that millinery classes are back in the city and it’s so rewarding for me too.”
However, for the last three years she has also been planning her couture collection, Vine & Moor. “My millinery students and clients are very stylish. Now we are more mature, we struggle to find really good, tailored clothing in the high street. I wanted a