By Juliet O’Neill
Madeleine Cormier was in her early 20s, studying fashion design in Montreal, when she discovered a wooden head form in her mom’s closet. It was the only thing that had survived a fire at her Aunt Simone’s hat shop in Edmundston, New Brunswick.
She used the form to shape a fur hat. “It’s almost magical that it happened like this,” she says in an interview. “I liked fashion, but I never thought I would make hats.” So her life as a milliner began.
When she got stuck, she would go to her aunt. “She always said ‘It’s simple, Madeleine, it’s always simple. And she would give me the tricks of the trade.’”
Chapeaux de Madeleine did start out simply about 25 years ago, when she made hats in her spare time in the evenings and sold them at a stall outdoors at the ByWard Market on Friday nights and all weekend. “Crazy woman,” she says. “I would arrive home Sunday night exhausted. My poor husband. He’s the one who endured all this.”
Her first millinery studio was above what was then Mother Tucker’s restaurant on York Street. There was no walk-by traffic, but the women who needed hats for galas and garden parties knew where to find her. “I had all the embassies,” she explained.
Madeleine has always kept her business in Lowertown. She had a glass office at Times Square, where so many people dropped by to chat that she had to make hats in the evenings. Chapeaux de Madeleine now is in a luxurious boutique with designer Frank Sukhoo on Dalhousie Street, across from Bingham Park.
Both have their own businesses and their own clients, but sometimes clients need a new hat to go with a new gown or vice versa. That means one-stop shopping for some customers. And recently, the two artists collaborated on spectacular gowns and hats for the Ottawa Dance Directive’s appearance at the gala opening of the Ottawa Art Gallery.
Madeleine, who misses her late husband Allan, says she has always found the Lowertown community small, close-knit and interested in supporting artists.
Madeleine’s creative inspiration comes from many sources, such as the weather, people, nature, photos in magazines. “Sometimes it’s unconscious.” Clients bring their own ideas and pictures they’ve found online. Her creations fit their personality and individual style, and of course “you have to respect what they’re wearing.”
She makes hats for all kinds of events, from fancy parties to weddings, and for just wearing any time. This spring she has been so busy, it’s almost a production line, making hats and fascinators for royal-wedding parties at the Chateau Laurier and the Rideau Club, among many other events. Her well known clients include Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, wife of the prime minister, and Sharon Johnston, wife of the previous governor general.
Madeleine’s prices range from $65 to $450. Some hats already made and displayed beautifully in the boutique have reference names. “The Eagle” looks like one when perched on the back of a model’s head. “The Audrey Hepburn” speaks for itself, invoking the glamour of one of the world’s most elegant women. She says hat styles from the 1950s and 60s are coming back into fashion. “You’re going to see a new take on the pillbox hat.”
At that, Madeleine has to turn to her next creation and get it done to clear her decks for royal-wedding commentary.