alumni profiles
Finding the Right Fit ALUMNA MARKIA HERRON FOUND HER PASSION FOR MAKING HATS FOR HERSELF AND TURNED IT INTO A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE BUSINESS by Tisha Arnold
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When wearing a hat, I believe it's the first thing you tend to notice; therefore, leaving your outfit to complement it.” Around 2012, Markia Herron started wearing hats often. Whenever she shopped, it usually included purchasing a hat. Over time, she started to notice that most of them only lasted a few months. After researching, she found out she wasn't buying quality hats. Due to the simplicity of her style, she says she wanted to make sure her accessories stood out. “That led to my interest in the hat business,” Herron said. “I learned so much about the trade from the entire hat making process to different felts and pricing. After a few months, I began to hunt for equipment and the best quality materials. From there, things took off.” Known as millinery, it is defined as the manufacture and craft of making hats and headwear. A milliner historically would also produce everything from shirts, cloaks and shifts, to caps and neckerchiefs for both men and women, as well as designing and trimming their headgear. The term dates to the Middle Ages, when a Milliner referred to someone from Milan — the home of fashion and textiles trade. Armed with a degree in Industrial Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering (ITMAE) from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, the techie-turnedmilliner began her hat journey while working her first postcollege job in a small town in Kansas. At that time, Herron estimates there were around 30 hat stores in the United States but only one in Kansas. While traveling for work in Manhattan, she visited a hat store there and purchased her first high quality hat. Her technical background took over when she dismantled, and reverse engineered the hat she bought from the Manhattan store. 42
UAPB Magazine • University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
According to Herron, millinery isn’t a trade that offers a multitude of apprenticeships. The lack of opportunities to shadow someone didn’t stop her. Fueled by the desire to do more with her newly found passion, Herron said she couldn’t sleep at night for months. She read all she could find about hat making and studied it like it was for a final exam in the demanding Quality Control course she took when attending UAPB. “Hat making has been a dying trade for many years, so when I decided to go full force with it, I knew I had to be great. What did I do? I set my sail and continued on.” Herron said she failed at times but succeed from correcting the errors. Most importantly, she never gave up. In those moments, she knew millinery was for her. She estimates having constructed 100 hats before she felt she had a firm grasp on the craft and could create a product that would be competitive in the market. Her perseverance paid off. Herron Hats was launched online May 2017 and has since garnered a worldwide customer base that includes celebrities such as R&B singer Anthony Hamilton, who has purchased several of them. “My style is very unorthodox,” she said. “I try to put a spin on the traditional, classical hat. I love to distress and add extra stitching details while staying true to the traditions of hat making.” Herron said her designs are created for the fashion forward who dare to think beyond the brim. In her own words, she seeks to blur the lines of professionalism and creativity to bring timeless pieces that can be worn for work or play. With each handcrafted piece, she looks to present a novel twist to an ageless design.
