Tapping into a natural passion for hats, Robin Chiesa of Old Glory Millinery crafted a new career–and now attracts national attention for her creative embellishments.
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Story by Pamela Price
Robin Chiesa always thought the Hill Country was beautiful. It just took the Texas native a few years to settle into this part of the state.
“I was raised in Rowlett, outside of the Dallas Metroplex. I lived in Paris, Texas, for several years,and then moved to New Mexico with an aging parent. I finally decided to move to the beautiful Hill Country and enjoy my life here with my husband, Russell Baros.”
As is often the case at midlife, Robin eventually found herself wanting a career change. Having served as a massage therapist and artist, she’d begun to tire. For inspiration on what to do next, she turned to her family tree.
“My great-great grandmother on my mother’s side–we called her “Big Momma”–was actually a popular milliner in the Rockdale area in the late 1800s and early 1900s. My great grandmother also dabbled in the trade.”
Having inherited a passion for hats, Robin decided to learn more about the craft.
“I started by taking lessons from a premier milliner in Austin, Laura Del Villagio of Milli Starr [a bespoke millinery company]. She is quite renowned, and this was my beginning.”
For the Love of Hats
Today Robin runs Old Glory Millinery and Hattery based in Llano.
“We have a brick-and-mortar building, but it’s not often open to the public because I generally work from home,” she said. Although the business is in Llano proper, she resides in nearby Fredonia where she is “surrounded by hat parts, pieces, ribbons, flowers, and feathers strung halfway across the county. [Hatmaking] becomes an obsession.”
As is typically the case with most artistic endeavors, millinery work is mostly a labor of love.
“Generally, I’d say I make about $0.50 an hour, but when you love what you do, sometimes it’s not about the money. Yes, we all need money to live, but more importantly we need love–and the love of my trade is very important. Millinery–or the trade of the hat–is becoming a lost art because women and gentlemen simply don’t wear hats as they did in the early 1900s.”
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Sweeping cultural changes in the 1960s transformed the hat-making industry, bringing it almost to its knees. A notable exception? Women in African-American faith communities, many of whom embraced what North Carolina professor Deirdre Guion Peoples famously termed “hattitude. . . . there’s a little more strut in your carriage when you wear a nice hat. There’s something special about you.”
Lately, whether it’s from the influence of junior British royals, the playful options a hat gives one in a selfie, or simply the need to hide a bad hair day, Robin noted that “ . . . there does seem to be a reemergence of the popularity of a hat.”
Doing her best to keep the tradition alive, Robin not only adorns hats but also teaches small seminars and classes in how to make fascinators or best adorn a chapeau.
“In the old days I might have been called a garnnesous, a French word meaning someone who embellished or decorated a hat’s base. I have and do make hats from basic materials, and I enjoy the personality that evolves from a [handmade hat].”
Crowning Glory
Although most modern American women eschew covering their heads with regularity, there is one other noteworthy place where the tradition remains robust and ever-fashionable: the Kentucky Derby.
“Last year one of my hats was chosen to be on display at Churchill Downs after being worn at the Kentucky Derby. For me, this was quite the honor,” Robin said, adding that she’s donated hats to causes including non-profits benefiting disabled jockeys. “I also enjoy donating hats to local charities.”
Word is spreading into print, too, about her millinery work.
“I have been fortunate since becoming involved in the millinery industry to have a few articles published in the local news. I also had a partial feature in a magazine call Where Women Create. I hope to be able to continue to express my enthusiasm for millinery’s past, present, and future–and to a larger degree.”
Pamela Price knew she wanted to write about Robin Chiesa’s hat-making business the moment she discovered one of the artist’s hats in a Comfort antique store in 2018. In a curious twist of events–and unbeknownst to the writer until she shared a photo on Facebook, Robin has a stash of Pamela’s late mother’s own millinery supplies. Pamela recognized the flowers instantly–and thus a story was born.
What a neat story and beautiful hats!