Wear a Hat Day – Vivien Sheriff

Vivien Sheriff, the celebrated milliner, was commissioned by the Brain Tumour Research charity to design this year’s brooch for Wear a Hat Day, which is on Friday 28^th March.

Only 500 of the Vivien Sheriff designed brooches are being produced, and each comes with its own certificate of authenticity.  To obtain your limited edition brooch and support the Brain Tumour Research charity go directly to the website, www.braintumourresearch.org/signature-brooches

Vivien (seen here on the far left) told Lifestyle magazine that the inspiration behind the design of the brooch is from one of her classic hats, Dressage, which is decorated with pheasant plumage contouring its sweeping brim.

From her idyllic setting in the New Forest, Vivien oversees an internationally renowned millinery business with an impressive private client list including Royalty and many celebrated heads.  In fact over fifty Vivien Sheriff hats and headpieces were worn at the royal wedding in July 2011 – more than any other milliner.  Kate Middleton also chose one of their headpieces for her first official Royal engagement with Prince William.  Their headwear is stocked in many luxury lifestyle outlets around the world.

Vivien told us, “Wearing a hat for many people is a transforming experience, people feel elevated and their feelings are uplifted. Brain Tumour Research’s Wear a Hat Day is a smart idea. It’s so simple to get involved, wearing a hat feels great and you can raise vital funds at the same time.

During the design process I’ve reminisced about my close friend, who died from a brain tumour. This has made the experience both meaningful and poignant.

I grew up next door to my friend and our families spent a lot of happy times together.  I was in my twenties when my friend died and it seemed desperately unfair that his life was taken from him so young.

My friend had everything going for him. He was an officer in the Army, was recently married and had a gorgeous young son. He’d been away for a while serving in the Gulf War and returned not feeling himself, but he put it down to his experience in the Gulf. Then, however, came the shock of the diagnosis of the tumour. He was treated soon after; undergoing various operations, yet his life was cut short.

At the time I remember feeling very hopeless that we couldn’t do anything to help him. There are few times in your life when you feel absolutely useless and this is my abiding memory; it still makes my heart ache to think about it, even more than twenty years later. There seemed to be nothing that any of us could do, even his mum who was a nurse with all her medical experience.”

Show your support on 28^th March by wearing a hat!