🖤 Rising Night: A Design That Still Inspires

🖤 Rising Night: A Design That Still Inspires

Some designs remain important long after the occasion for which they were created. Rising Night is one of those pieces.

Created by my mother, Sheila Bateman, in 1995, Rising Night is a striking example of her approach to millinery: dramatic, carefully balanced and completely individual.

The sweeping loops that give Rising Night its height and movement were constructed from wire and foam. Sheila then covered them with black knitted fabric woven with metallic thread, which caught the light as the wearer moved.

That fabric had a history of its own. To create Rising Night, Sheila cut up one of her evening gowns and gave the material an entirely new life as part of the hat.

This was not unusual in the way she worked. Materials were valued for their possibilities rather than being limited by their original purpose. An evening gown could become the beginning of a millinery design, with its fabric reshaped and reimagined into something completely different.

Fine Russian netting surrounds the sculptural loops, creating volume and softness without obscuring their shape. Metallic spirals and three contrasting flowers introduce further movement and detail, drawing the eye through the design.

Every element contributes to the finished form. The loops guide the eye upward, the netting frames the wearer’s face and the flowers interrupt the black just enough to reveal the structure within the design.

Rising Night was not intended to disappear quietly into an outfit. It was made to complete one.

In the original photographs, it is worn with a fitted black evening gown. Together, the gown and millinery create a long, elegant silhouette, but Rising Night retains its own identity. It adds height, drama and movement from every angle.

That relationship between a headpiece and its wearer remains important in my own work today. A piece can look beautiful on a stand, but it must also be considered on a real person. Its position, weight, balance and proportions all affect how the finished design is experienced.

Rising Night remains a special part of our family’s creative history. It represents Sheila’s confidence in creating something original, her ability to see new possibilities in existing materials and her understanding that millinery could become the defining feature of an entire look.

I do not want to reproduce Rising Night. Its value lies in being an original piece from its own time. What I carry forward are the principles behind it: strong structure, thoughtful balance, careful workmanship, creative reuse and the courage to make something distinctive.

More than thirty years later, Rising Night still has presence. It still commands attention, still reveals new details when viewed from another angle and still inspires the work being created through Bateman Original Designs today.

That is what heritage means to me. It is not about remaining in the past. It is about recognising the skill and imagination that came before, preserving its story and allowing it to inform something new.

Helen Greville-Bateman
Bateman Original Designs

Designed by Hand. Defined by Heritage.