Jennifer L. Copeland Millinery
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
About
Jennifer L. Copeland Millinery began with a simple idea, that every women should own a beautiful hat. Since the fall of 2009, Jennifer has made luxurious hats and hair accessories in her millinery studio in the heart of Pittsburgh. It is a space packed with wooden hat blocks, velvety felts, intricate straws, sumptuous silks, and vintage veiling. These materials serve as inspiration for the classic romantic style the millinery produces for its ready-to-wear pieces and custom millinery designs.
Jennifer’s dedication to quality hat production and customer service has established her as a leading milliner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Over the years, the millinery’s hats have been sold in stores such as Carl Herrmann Furs, 3G Gallery, Occasions of Pittsburgh, Catherina and Cheryl W. They have also been featured in the local newspapers and magazines. This success allowed the millinery to expand into men’s headwear, producing classic and timeless fedoras, trilbies, and derbies. In addition to ready-to-wear options, Jennifer personally designs and constructs intricate custom headwear for special occasions and for everyday wear.
Jennifer’s love of millinery began with her love of art. She completed her studies as an art educator at Penn State University in 2000, with a studio focus in metal arts and a minor is art history. Soon she began teaching in cultural institutions and middle schools in Pennsylvania: State College and Pittsburgh. While serving as a teacher and specials coordinator at a charter school in State College, she began experimenting with textile techniques in metalwork, making jewelry and vessels of knit copper and silver.
This experimentation reinvigorated a love of textiles that began in childhood when her mother taught her to sew and embroider. In fact, with a maiden name of Schneider (meaning tailor in German), she is a descendant of European tailors. Two great grandfathers were tailors and her great aunt Esther Heiss was also a milliner. Jennifer is overjoyed to carry on the family tradition.
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