Queensland milliner Kimberley Sakzewski will open a studio with a difference this weekend.
The Head Office is Boonah's first space dedicated solely to handmate hats and headwear. Sakzewski will hold an Open Studio from 10am to 3pm this Saturday May 18.
Following her Headlines exhibition at the Boonah Regional Art Gallery in March and April last year, Sakzewski went looking for a local space where she could create and display her handmade hats and headwear.
"The majority of my sales have occured when the buyer actually has a chance to try on the article," says Sakzewski, who also owns the millinery and accessories label Zoo-Ski. "Headwear is such a personal purchase, and this has really prompted the need for a public studio."
Sakzewski's millinery career commenced in 2007 after learning her craft at the Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE. She was soon commissioned to make headwear for the Queensland Ballet's Swan Lake and A Mid-Summer Night's Dream and Opera Queensland's Fidelio.
She moved into retail millinery after winning the Rising Star award at the Australian fashion industry's NRA Awards in 2008. A 'tree change' from Brisbane to Boonah put her career on hold briefly, but she's now set to pick up where she left off.
Sakzewski hopes her studio will signal a new chapter both for her millinery career and for Boonah's High Street, which she says has undergone a mini-resurgence in new shop openings recently.
The Head Office is located at Unit 4, 44 High Street (above Maynard's). Follow Zoo-Ski on Facebook to keep up to date with opening hours. For more info, head to www.zoo-ski.com.
