Also known as the Grand Dame of hat making, Yvette has been very fortunate to find a Job that brings all her passions in life together.

I got excited about hats from the age 8 when I was fascinated by my Grandmother who always looked so stylish and always wore a hat. My first hat was a pink velour trilby which was very grown up for an eight year old. I used to wear it to church for Sunday school and then my love of hats grew so much, instead of wanting toys I asked for hats. At Dodderhill girls school we had an art teacher who loved sewing and we would make evening bags and jewellery as well as painting, she brought out the best in us.

When we moved to Herefordshire I would make hats from sticks, feathers, flowers mud and even leaves that would be so dead they only had a trace of the veins on them. It was perfect, my love of nature blending with creating miniature hats. My sister and I were given a pony one Christmas and that's where the other passion in my life began Hats and Horses what could be better. Who needed boys?

I went to Luton the hat making capital of England. (Even the football team are called the hatters after such a long history of hat making in that area) Working for £42.00 a week going though all the processes of blocking, machining and hand sewing I learnt from ladies who had worked this way all their life and learnt from their mothers and grannies before them. Once this apprenticeship was completed I was fortunate to go and work with Graham Smith in his London workrooms, the designer who was at the time making hats for Princess Diana and other amazing ladies who went places. Then, gaining a position as a designer went on to design collections for many high street retailers such as Next, John Lewis as well capsule collections for Harrods and other high end retailers.

After marrying a racehorse trainer my love of horses came back into my life and I was making hats for all the wives of racehorse trainers when going to Royal Ascot and such. The BBC asked me to commentate on all the wonderful hats that were worn for such events and having Jeff Banks next to me explaining all the outfits we had a great time (as well as having grade 1 racehorses to watch!) It meant I could start up on my own and make more one off pieces for clients.

I am still making capsule collections for other companies to complement their clothes. Jeff and I are still commentating at Royal Ascot live on the day and have set up Fashion on the field (www.fashiononthefield.co.uk) which is the best of fashion on show at british racecourses. Last year we had Ben di Lisi, Matthew Williamson, Mark Heyes and other wonderful judges to help us find the best dressed race goer of 2011. Please do look on the FOTF page and click on the pink circle to see the fun we had.

There is nothing more fulfilling than to be complemented on your attire and a hat is always a talking point and the finishing touch to any outfit.

After 3 different shops it is wonderful to be offering clients in London at shop where they can park, have an hours appointment time in a relaxed environment to choose a hat or headpiece for their special occasion. We have a ready made one off collection or can make to order. There is a minimum time of 2 weeks for a made to order but hats for Royal Ascot and other big occasions will need considerably longer. Last year was very busy with the Royal Wedding , and those lucky enough to come to the Connaught Street shop would have seen some of the designs as well as Prince Harry and Prince Williams caps ! We are very fortunate with the client base we have and become friends with most over the years. As our client list expands it has not been possible to make all the hats myself but we are slowly getting a dream team together in order not to turn customers away.

All our hats are made in the U.K our products sourced from UK businesses. We have flowers brought from Germany as they are still hand made there and we buy from abroad as and when the quality dictates. We use the best quality fabrics for blocking and can work with your dress maker / designer on collecting fabrics and talking though the design if requested.

www.LoveHats.com will have a Yvette Jelfs collection made for high end on line customers and our own website boutique will have classic designs for you to choose from when necessary. www.lovehats.com is a new website going live on 31st January 2012 and will have the best of milliners from around the world all on one wonderful site.

If you think you too would like to be a hat maker / milliner then do sign up for one of our courses for 2012 , we are putting dates together now, please read the news section for details. I sadly cannot take all the courses myself, but will have suitably qualified staff to teach other people the art and mystery of hatmaking. It is amazing how many people have an eye to create, they simply do not have the material and tools to do so. We have photographs of a hat course we did at Duntreath Castle on our downloadable page to see what its like when you get your friends together and can organise such a course. We have in the past had a 'hatty hen parties' where all the girls make their own hats and then wear them to 'the' wedding !

Any questions you may have then please go to the contact page and will try to be as helpful as possible.