Evetta Petty is the first Black Milliner to join the Royal Ascot Millinery Collective 2024

Milliners Guild founding member Evetta Petty has been chosen to join the Royal Ascot Millinery Collective in 2024. Evetta has always been a ground breaker and this honor is no exception. She is the first Black milliner chosen for the collective and second from the US.

Evetta grew up in Alabama where she learned to sew on an old Singer pedal machine. Inspired by a fashionable aunt, Evetta became a playing with fashion design early and spent her summers attending the Harlem School of the Arts in New York. She finally moved to NYC where she earned a degree Textiles and Marketing at FIT. At this point Evetta did not think of herself as a milliner but decided to sell some handmade accessories at a pop-up in Soho. Her hats were such a hit she went on to open her hat shop Harlems Heaven Hats in uptown New York.

Evetta has been making hats for over 30 years. She is often asked to partcipate in New York Fashion Week. And her work has been featured in numerous magazine like Vogue, Glamour, Elle, L'Officiel, Essence, Vogue Australia, Vogue Italia, The New York Times, Marie Claire, Grazia, and the cover of Harper’s Bazaar. The guild is lucky and proud to have such a talented milliner as member!