A little bit about Sinamay

Sinamay is run and owned by Alison Blackwell, who also helps to run her husband Joe Blackwell's Wholesale Millinery business, J.Bees Millinery.  Millinery is a long estalished family tradition for the Blackwells.  Joe's Dad Billy and Mum Wendy, were both in the Hat trade for many years and it was this family understanding of Millinery which lead Joe to set up in business for himself, some 25 years ago.  Alison was a Graphic Designer and Art Director from a fashion mail order background for many years, and with this fashion background, eye for colour and design flair, they make the perfect team.

'The Mission Statement I had, when Joe and I decided to open a dedicated Millinery shop was 'Bringing Millinery into the Millienium!'  I felt we needed to create a truly comtemporary feel and look for the shop, to dispel the image of the old fashioned 'Trumpton' style hat shop.  I wanted to appeal to a whole new young generation of Millinery customers who enjoy wearing hats and fascinators and looking good.  We had to create the right atmosphere for this kind of customer whilst not alienating our more traditional customers.'

I chose the name Sinamay for the shop, as I wanted a name that actually has some connection with the products we are selling, without being too obvious.  Sinamay is actually the type of straw that most Hats and Fascinators are made from, I really liked the idea that it was just a nice ambiguous word to some people and to those 'in the know' a clever connection.

The reason I chose a Peacock feather for our logo was simple, what other iconic image better illustrates what we do?  We are in the buisness of making our customers look fabulous and spectacular!