Making Silk Flowers: Peonies with Anne Tomlin

Anne graduated in 1983 from West Surrey College of Art (now part of UCA) with a first-class Honours degree in Textile Design, before studying Millinery at The London School of Fashion. She began designing and making hats in 1985 and started to make a name for herself in the fashion world. By the end of the 1980s she had founded Bailey Tomlin with textile designer Bridget Bailey, and for nearly 20 years they made hats under their own label, as well as collections for many prestigious stores and designers; including Harrods, Liberty, Mulberry, Saks 5th Avenue and Mitsukoshi, regularly exhibiting at the London Designer Show, Chelsea Crafts Fair and The Country Living Fair. She was invited by the British Council to Japan three times between 2001 and 2004, for the prestigious 'British Week’ at Mitsukoshi. Since the hat making years Anne has focused on the studying and making of flowers. Clients include Harriet Anstruther, Jane Taylor Hats, Rachel Skinner and artist Yinka Shonibare, Her work has featured in recent exhibitions: Parfums d’Orient at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris; “Wild & Cultivated: Fashioning the Rose” at the Garden Museum; plus flowers commissioned for “Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World” at The National Portrait Gallery and is currently working towards an exhibition on flower-making at the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey curated by Amy de la Haye. She has taught at West Dean College, London College of Fashion, Selvedge Magazine and London Hat Week.