AKUBRA's Starring Role in AUSTRALIA The Movie
Thursday, 27 November 2008
AKUBRA received an order for close to 450 hats for the feature film, custom making key pieces under  the direction of headwear specialist Rosie Boylan. Working with Costume Designer Catherine Martin and a team of milliners, Boylan created striking silhouette headwear for the principal cast and hundreds of extras that profiled life in 1930’s Australia.



“From our perspective, working with Rosie was a great collaboration,” said AKUBRA’S Managing Director, Stephen Keir, the fifth generation of the Keir family to take the helm at the family owned and operated company.

“She first came to us in 2005 with a very clear vision of what was needed. We enjoyed the creative process and it’s exciting to see that it has all come to fruition now, knowing we are a small but recognisable part of what will undoubtedly be Australian cinematic history.”

For her part the un-assuming Boylan says, “With the men’s hats, my role was to create a range of strong character looks that carried the epic Hollywood styling of the film. I took the cinematic vision and worked with AKUBRA to translate their classic hats into customised pieces.”

Many of the AKUBRA hats supplied were hand shaped and aged by Rosie and her team who also created trims and wide ribbon banding that was typical of the era.

“We sent fresh, new open crowned hats off and they then had to make them look like they’d been worn through anything from war to years in the outback,” Stephen Keir said. “Our hats are renowned for their durability so I’m sure ageing them was an art in itself.”

This isn’t Akubra’s Hollywood debut with past  movie credits including “The Man from Snowy River”, “Crocodile Dundee” and “Bodyline”.

PHOTOS: Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, complete with their specially designed AKUBRAS, from two scenes in the movie Australia.