Leanne Cairns Millinery designing and producing Occasion Wear Bio Hats, which are 3D printed, environmentally friendly, Low Carbon, Zero Waste and Industrially Bio-degradeable. 

Background 

Leanne Cairns, a milliner, based in rural Ayrshire has been designing and creating hats, fascinators and wedding head dresses for her clients from her studio for several years. She is dedicated to creating bespoke luxury and elegant millinery for special occasions. 

The Challenge 

Leanne saw potential in the largely untapped Scottish market within the wedding and up market, occasion wear, events sector for individually crafted, bespoke hats that could be created in exactly the right colour for matching outfits, as well as being made from locally sourced environmentally circular materials that offered very individual, ethically sourced and quickly manufactured hats. 

Leanne from an early age enjoyed sewing, making, drawing and painting.  She originally studied an Interior Design BSC and then through various design related employment, Leanne developed a love of 3D design Auto CAD, spacial and technical design, ingenuity of structural design and pattern making. 

Leanne has always been of the mindset of ‘Make Do and Mend’ having always been someone that never throws away anything if it can be re-used in a creative way. An avid recycler from childhood this was always the background driver in her traditional craft of millinery and so a mission to be more sustainable in the design and production was a natural progression. 

Leanne Cairns Millinery’s clients were mainly in the 35+ age bracket however Leanne identified a potential market segment in the 18-35 age bracket that didn’t understand or know about the social and confidence building benefits of wearing hats.  Market research of this potential target market was undertaken by students in Fashion Marketing at Glasgow Caledonian University supported by Interface.  The research clarified that the 18- 35 age segment were very eco-conscious and wanted to make a difference to the planet by not buying fashion that would contribute to landfill accumulation.  

The findings of this research lead onto a further collaboration with the team at Napier University to discover a circular, zero waste product that would lead onto a commitment to providing innovative new hat design and manufacturing utilising 3d printing with industrially bio-degradeable materials that are locally and ethically sourced, with a low carbon footprint. 

The Solution 

Leanne was originally referred to Interface by West Coast Accelerator. Mari of Interface was able to identify Edinburgh Napier University as a partner and academic Dr Samantha Vettese who had the interest and experience required for Leanne’s project. A Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher was secured. 

Leanne worked with Dr Samantha Vettese and Dr Xingyu Chloe Tao, on 3D product designing, 3D prototyping and general development of 3D recycled millinery which included:  

• Computer Aided Design 

• Design Modelling on 3D software  
• Product Development  
• Creative Input  
• Manufacturing Prototype /design 

The Benefits 

Leanne very much believes in designing and producing products, which can be 3D printed, are environmentally friendly with recycling and re-using the wearable hats at the end of their life cycle. A take back scheme of the manufactured designs would be a differentiator and make a difference to the planet and the surrounding environment by re-using the product in the biodegration process to create energy and other products, thus prolonging a circular end of life.  

Some of the main benefits of the collaboration are: 

• Successful development of prototypes for market testing helping showcase the possibilities of 3D printing in occasion wear hats. 

• The capability to produce environmentally friendly, recycled, wearable hat art to be sold via e-commerce, designed using STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and digital products to be sold to 3D printing enthusiasts with no wastage and low carbon footprint. 

• Potential to push the boundaries of this traditional based industry in a more STEM and modern approach to climate change.  

• Ability to make more sculptural and futuristic head pieces designed by Leanne Cairns Millinery and sell utilising online, e-commerce and bespoke commissions within the fashion houses or private clients. 

• Ability to rapidly prototype and manufacture efficiently with digital adoption. 

• Opening up new markets for Leanne Cairns Millinery in the online sector with branding via tourism, metaverse, blockchain and e-commerce. 

• Leanne Cairns Millinery becoming a South Ayrshire Carbon Champion with the prototype and organisation carbon auditing achieved with low results and a commitment to Net Zero by 2050 via the SME Climate Hub  

• Continuation of R&D via Student Innovation Voucher with a brilliant relationship now established with Napier University.