NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE'The Shaw Festival wears many hats.

It's universally recognized as one of North America's greatest theatres. It's one of the few production companies in the world devoted to drama by George Bernard Shaw and other playwrights of his period. And it's one of Canada's foremost tourist attractions, drawing more than 300,000 visitors each season.

But rarely is it recognized for its millinery.

And yet, creating and curating hats ' and all the trimmings that make each one unique ' is a big job at the Shaw Festival Theatre.

In fact, it's two full-time jobs.

Margie Berggren is the head milliner, working with assistant Christine Grosskurth in what is charmingly referred to as the "hats, spats and cravats" area of Shaw's wardrobe department.

The milliners are responsible for "any decoration on the head" of Shaw actors, including flowers, tiaras and military caps, explains Berggren. Helmets, however, are considered props and fall within the purview of the props department. "I don't do metal work," quips Berggren.

What she does do is translate the designer's sketches into fabric. "My job is to create their vision," she explains. The process begins with selecting swatches and compiling a loose-leaf book for each show ("my bible") with a page for each costume with a hat.

For musicals, says Berggren, there may be as many as 180 hats to fashion. This year, Wonderful Town, set in 1935, required 77 hats, including a handsome brown felt fedora worn by the character Ruth, the older sister.

"The women's hats are mostly felts, hand blocked with creases," she says, "and we've tried to make them so they're not shading their faces or interfering with the sound, because the girls are all miked."

"Seasons can be very different in volume depending how much the characters are indoors or outdoors," Berggren says.

During Shaw's era (the Irish playwright lived 1856-1950), anyone who was getting ready to go outside would put on a hat but generally wouldn't wear one indoors, she says.

In Wonderful Town, however, there's a pyjama scene where the women wear little knit boudoir turbans in turquoise, blue and black.

Even if they're meant to look as if the girls have just tied them around their heads, they're "pre-done," says Berggren, so they can be taken on and off in a quick change. "But it needs to look like they've done it themselves."

The theatrical millinery process finishes with the fittings on the actors: "Is there a wig? Is there a quick change? Any special action the hat has to do?"

One challenge is finding antique wooden blocks to create an authentic period shape for each hat. Berggren, who is in her 14th season at the Shaw Festival, is justifiably proud of her collection of antique blocks, many of which come from old milliners closing up shop.

"I personally have bought blocks from milliners who knew if something happened to them, who would value all their beautiful stuff?" she says.

Much of the antique material she works with, including fabrics, feathers, flowers and blocks are donated to the festival by people cleaning out their attics or their parents' attics.

One supplier she depended on, Manny's Millinery in New York (mannys-millinery.com) is closing at the end of this month, after 60 years.

"Sources are drying up," says Berggren, with a sigh. "And the quality of what's available now is changing. A lot of manufacturers of materials are no longer in business."

For example, she says, "Buckram is not what it used to be."

Buckram, a coarse stiff linen material used as a base and usually covered with fabric, is one of the materials shaped around the wooden blocks. Felt is another. They're lacquered, steamed, pulled over the shape with brims formed and pinned into place.

Women's hats are often hand-draped into what Berggren calls "interesting shapes." Straw hats are also a favourite of designers for this period. Fortunately, because all the productions fit into one period, many hats can be recycled, especially men's hats, many of which are purchased ready-made rather than created in-house.

Among the 1,000 odd hats in an off-site storage area are fedoras, bowlers, homburgs, safari hats and all manner of military millinery.

There's also a small storage room not far from the wardrobe workroom. Berggren and her colleagues call it "Oprah's Closet."

"Because it's got everything you could want," explains Berggren with a laugh.

Shelves are lined with plastic boxes full of antique ribbons, exotic feathers, exquisite old velvet flowers and rosebuds ' "old trims hard to find."

Designers come and pick through the boxes in Oprah's Room, says Berggren. It's easy to imagine how they must feel like kids in a candy store.

Berggren cherishes all the room's treasures but she's particularly fond of the fancy feathers, some a century old, curled and furled to resemble birds.

And she lovingly proffers a gorgeous, wide spool of ribbon with three different stripes of watercolour greens. "Made in Switzerland," she says. "Fifty years old."

It's easy to understand why authenticity is so important, esthetically and psychologically, in recreating an era and contributing to the suspension of disbelief. It's important for practical reasons, too.

"Because the stages are so close (to the audience), especially at The Courthouse," explains Berggren, "the detail shows."

A graduate of Sheridan College's fashion design program, Berggren knows her job is unusual. "You should see me when I have a whole load of heads in my car," she says about the Styrofoam heads that are always at hand.

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