Somers Milliner Provides Looks That Cook

SOMERS, N.Y. - Jackie Cicogna has no problem admitting that she was the biggest nerd at Somers High School.

Even so, she remembers having the most daring fashion sense.

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“I was very Audrey Hepburn but Goth at the same time,” she revealed.

But the young woman was making more than just a statement.

She graduated from FIT, worked with some of the biggest corporate names in the field, and did plenty of freelancing. Mostly in the field of millinery or hat design, she didn’t stop with the world when Covid hit.

“I did my certificate of authority,” she said, and has been out on her own with Jackie Cicogna Millinery since 2022.

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The hat designer began long before Somers, though, and had designer genes get her going. Her paternal grandmother was a milliner for Bergdorf Goodman, her maternal grandmother was a seamstress, and her father certainly inherited a strong fashion sense.

Given the flight her family took, there was little chance the proficiency would skip a generation. “When I was six, we moved to the south of France,” she said.

Still, grandma was her greatest inspiration. “I made hats using her materials,” said Cicogna.

The matriarch didn’t necessarily get to see the goth, but both were still happy to run in the same circle. “Whenever our parents left us, she would take us shopping,” remembered Cicogna.

Then after high school, FIT introduced Cicogna to another fellow traveler. “I discovered a milliner there,” said Cicogna. “She was very technique oriented, and I studied with her the entire time.”

Cicogna didn’t wait to turn theory into practice either.  “I was working while I was studying,” she said. So, gaining experience with several milliners and several companies, graduation was an easy transition.

Mostly freelancing in NYC, her designs provided cover close to home and in big cities like Chicago and Baltimore.  But the continent called again. “I met this French guy,” she revealed.

Off to France, she continued along the same lines until the winds shifted again. “We broke up. Then I worked on the other side,” she said. “I did corporate fashion.”

Ralph Lauren and Prada, among others, she got in deep, and Giorgio Armani on Madison Avenue is where she bottomed out, so to speak. She would scale back and clients now oversee her creativity.  “My clients inspire me,” said Cicogna.

They have a vision, and she sets out to deliver. “I see how they live and what they do,” said Cicogna. “You always want to make things fit their lifestyle.”

A whole creative process, the milliner can’t hold back the magic. “Then it just kind of happens,” she said.

The final say isn’t bad either.

“When I see the client, and they try it on,” Cicogna said, “their eyes light up - oh my God - that is the best feeling ever.”

The added responsibility of doing the entire thing on her own, maybe not so much. But the end result elevates in kind. “It’s much more rewarding,” she assured.

And you can’t beat it when Martha Stewart comes calling.  At Bedford Riding Lanes last year, the milliner was connected for a Kentucky Derby party, and she ended up doing a segment on Hulu’s Martha Cooks show.

In stream, Martha was really cooking in Jackie’s hat. “It was absolutely stunning,” she beamed.

The line doesn’t end here, though. “She’s going to study business marketing with a focus on fashion,” she said of her daughter Farah.

The proud mom is quick to caution that Farah never appears with Mom’s standard covers, but the graduating senior has helped broaden the inventory. “She wears headbands and cowboy hats,” said Cicogna. “So that’s another part of the business I’ve developed.”

Daughter isn’t the only customer in the family, though. “I’m the toughest one of them all,” she concluded.

For more information, visit jackiecicognamillinery.com .

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