Millner a modern-day rarity as she handcrafts custom headwear

Once upon a time, no lady worth her white gloves would step out in public without a hat adorning her head.

The go-go '60s changed all that, and American women never again have picked up a passion for hats.

Millner Marilyn Melrose of Spanish Springs works to change that. She creates custom styles for those women who do wear hats.

They are hand-blocked and hand-finished. Felt is steamed over wooden blocking. Straw is hand-dyed and sewn over a mesh of buchrum.

Trims can contain vintage items or hand-made novelties. Silk and velvet may be hand-dyed to coordinate with the hat body.

"Each finished product is unique," says Melrose, "a work of art."

She sells the custom pieces at trunk shows, gift shops and festivals.

"If sold through a retailer, I would have to double the prices," she says.

Still, retail is her primary competition. "There are very, very few of us doing this," she says of her custom craft.

Weddings provide a demand for specialty millinery, such as a coordinating hat for the mother of the bride. Or, a wedding party may order a certain style and color in sizes for all participants.

Women who want a custom hat can call and come out to her in home studio. Melrose invites visitors to bring a picture of a hat they want, a picture of an outfit, or just come to see her stock of hats.

Custom hats cost $120 to $220 depending on size, style, and amount of handwork.

But the bread- and-butter product is a soft and casual line costing $85 to $160. And a beret with flowers for $52.

Melrose makes up to 300 hats a year and takes at least 80 to a show.

Good venues, she says, include the Truckee Arts and Crafts Fair and the Lake Tahoe Festival of Fine Arts.

This year, she took a booth at the Nevada Woman's Expo and plans to reappear next year.

When it comes to selling vintage styles, she likes the Art Deco Society in San Francisco and Sacramento, where ladies buy vintage hats styled for the 1920s and 1930s.

The American Arts Festival in Sacramento also sells vintage styles, such as the boater hat popular in the 1920s.

Melrose graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles and from California State University at Los Angeles with a degree in fashion design and textiles.

She went right to work in hats, which she's crafted for 12 years. Her hats are at www.mmmhats.com.

The Headwear Information Bureau in New York says that hat sales have climbed 15 percent since the 1980s and they're showing up in more and more places this year.