Like all excellent instruction manuals, From the Neck Up balances clean instructional writing with passages describing the writer's attitude toward her work. It is this injection of the author's personality and experience that, like the presence of a good teacher in a classroom, illuminates the task at hand.
      Theatre Journal
      Review by Rosemary Ingham

 
Hats off to Denise Dreher who felt so acutely the need to remedy the shortage of written material on millinery that she not only wrote an excellent book on the subject, she formed her own company to publish and distribute it as well. The book has become more successful than anyone could have imagined, including Dreher herself.  From The Neck Up is a comprehensive and honest guide to a sometimes involved process, and it's an invaluable resource for the amateur and professional costumer who previously had no collection of period headdress patterns from which to work.
      Handmade Magazine

Quite a surprising release from a very small press.
      Booklist
      American Library Association

Your book is magnificent! It's beautiful, clear, easy to read, fun to look at and useful. The patterns, photographs and illustrations make everything so clear. I love the Victorian illustrations and the sense of humor throughout.
      Katie Strand Evans, Costume Designer
      Eastern Michigan University

I found the book to be quite fascinating and am sure it will find a place in the libraries of many stitchers and on the working shelf for those interested in every aspect of costume and clothing design.
      The Flying Needle

Somewhat of a swan song for a fading craft and fashion, From The Neck Up is all about hats: designing, making and wearing them. The book celebrates the subject with such unsolemn expertise that headgear becomes hard to resist.
      Theatre Crafts Magazine 

How exciting to find a milliner willing to share her experiences and knowledge.
      Jacqueline Cintura
      Salt Lake City, Utah

Ms. Dreher states that her reason for writing the book is to take the mystery out of millinery and make this information available to everyone. I can only say that she is well on her way to accomplishing her mission.
      Keeping You In Stitches
      Sally Cowan, Columnist

I have found your book a very rich source of information. Now at last students have a resource to begin from. For a long time millinery in the theatre has been learned either through trial and error or passed down as some kind of arcane practice from master to apprentice. From The Neck Up is a rare find not only because there are so few works on the subject but because it covers the topic so thoroughly as well.
      Thom Coates, Costume Designer
      Alliance Theatre Company 

This book resurrects the almost lost craft of handmade millinery through very readable text, photographs and clear illustrations. Although the emphasis is on historical hatmaking for theatrical use, an absolute novice could easily adapt the instructions to street wear.
      The Textile Booklist

We are fascinated with a new book called From The Neck Up. The book is extremely valuable for costume departments in colleges and universities as well as theatrical costume designers, historians and anyone interested in making their own hats.
      The Fashion/Sewing Newsletter
      New York City, NY

We love your book! We are so grateful to you for writing it and so glad that it is beautifully designed as well as packed with information.
      Bobby Ann Loper, Costume Designer 
      University of Wisconsin
 
 

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If you have read From The Neck Up and enjoyed it, we encourage you to write a review at www.amazon.com or any of the other online bookstores you frequent. Your comments will help others who are looking for millinery instructions and patterns. Thanks. We appreciate your support.