Janet Linville

I have been a milliner since 1979, when I started working on the Casino shows in Atlantic City. I didn't know I was going to be a milliner back then. My boss, who was a mentor in college, saw something in me and just thought it was a good fit. I made some very large headdresses that went with very little costumes.  In 1982, I moved to NYC to work with Woody Shelp who is still, years after his passing, the greatest milliner I've known. I learned more from him than from anyone else. Sowing my wild millinery oats, I worked all over the place for about a decade: fashion millinery from high end to mass market, a season at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, 3 seasons at The Santa Fe Opera, contract patternmaking and assistant designing for fashion millinery- oh, and yeah, teaching fashion millinery at the Fashion Institute of Technology since 1987. In about 1992, I started my own millinery studio where we made hats for movies (ie My Best Friend's Wedding), the Big Apple Circus, Broadway (Lion King, Miss Saigon, Beauty and the Beast, to name a few) and some ballet pieces and installations. 

In 1997, I took a position with the Metropolitan Opera as their milliner and have been working there ever since. I don't get much time for independent work , but I have managed to make hats for several Shakespeare in the Park productions and for some TV (Boardwalk Empire) as well as a few gallery exhibits. 

I love what I do and I love teaching about what I do. I have had a very wide range of 'millinery experiences' and have learned from everyone of the people I've worked for and with.

I truly enjoy sharing that.

Hope you like my work and I hope we work together soon

- Janet

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