Another Galway milliner heading for success!

Date Published: {J}

by Peter Horgan

A Galway milliner following in the footsteps of his famous mentor Philip Treacy is building a growing reputation for himself in the fashion world at home and abroad.

Mark T. Burke has seen his star rise just twelve months after winning the 2010 Golden Egg Productions’ Accessory Designer of the Year. The Loughrea native now operates his own business out of the spare bedroom of his home, but delivers all over Ireland and the UK.

His creative journey kick started in his native Loughrea, when he began working in costumes with Loughrea Youth Theatre a number of years ago and from there moved into working on various musicals around Galway. It was the production of My Fair Lady in Athlone and the Ascots that cemented his love of mhat design.

He interned under Philip Treacy after many “polite calls and emails” and has nothing but respect for his fellow Galwegian. “He’s top of his game. I’m not just saying that because he’s from Galway but there’s no comparison to him at all. Treacy most certainly revived the hat in the 1990’s and brought it back to the catwalk.”

“With the (Celtic) Tiger came the ability to splash out on that perfect outfit for the races, weddings and so on, and accessorize it to the hills! I thought maybe that would all die with the death of the Tiger but people are very much still having hats and headpieces made! The slight difference I have noticed is that many are using them for a few events or having them made to go with two different outfits. It seems there are milliners popping up everywhere these days – perhaps we are going back to the millinery traditions of the early 20th century where there were milliners on each street and every woman had their preferred milliner!”

The Royal Wedding, and the assembled headpieces featured that day, dominated a wide range of news headlines recently. Princess Beatrice’s hat (designed by Mark’s mentor, Philip Treacy) fetched over £80,000 on eBay this week for charity. And the 23 year old has seen some interest spike since the occasion.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.