Established in 2004, Ava Hansen Millinery started in the heart of the Portland, a mecca of eclectic fashion. Ava Hansen Millinery is the only Portland Millinery that handcrafts fine hats in the old tradition - Handblocking felt and straw over antique wood hat blocks, creating original patterns for structured fabric hats and wire frame hats, and specializing in antique and vintage hat restoration. Ava Hansen Millinery's designs are directly inspired by the historic styles from the 1700s through the 1950s. Ava designs original and makes replicas of antique wood hat blocks to create authentic historical and vintage styles. Portland's own Ava Hansen Millinery is the custom bespoke millinery that caters to a range of fashion afficianados including vintagettes, reenactors, and women with an eclectic sense of fashion.

Designer Profile 

Ava Hansen-Dyer has long been drawn to the aesthetic. As a young girl, she spent vacations helping in her grandmother's Seattle hat boutique and spent summers reading classic novels like L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. She dreamt of living in bygone eras where womens wardrobes were works of art; The quality and detail of a woman's daily ensemble was idealized by Ava growing up.

As a young woman, Ava experienced a deepening interest in fashion history and womens issues and developed strong values for artistry, craftsmanship, and small business. The mass marketed one size fits all consumer market where things are not made to last made it important to her to learn a craft of substance and enduring qualities. Ava felt a calling to learn the trade of millinery like many women who tread the earth before her and as she creates each hat, hand blocking on antique wood blocks, she has felt a deep connection to the centuries old tradition of women who supported or supplemented their family income through the millinery trade. Incorporating many vintage trims and using historical millinery techniques, Ava continues the long tradition of bespoke millinery. 

Ava was trained by nationally renowned Milliner, Ms. Jeanne Bjorn, who taught at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology and has over twenty years of expertise. Ava continued her millinery education through an intensive apprenticeship with a veteran Milliners who was trained by none other than the late John Eaton of New York, a well known Milliner of the 1940's. In June 2004, Ava opened her millinery studio out of her home in Portland, Oregon where she creates tomorrow's heirlooms: custom handcrafted period correct vintage style hats for discriminating women with a penchant for fashion.