For some brides, incorporating a family heirloom into a wedding-day ensemble can be the perfect way to honor a loved one.   Perhaps it’s the veil her mother wore, or the headpiece from her grandmother, or even the wax flowers from her great-grandmother’s vintage crown that can be repurposed into a unique and meaningful design.

But making something old into something new requires a particular set of skills. For the past twenty-five years, designer Marie Hunt has been using her creativity and expertise to repurpose and redesign vintage veils and headpieces into unique styles for brides around the world. “You can look at a million places to find something modern, trendy, contemporary…that’s not really my client,” she said. “My client is the one that wants something no one else has.”

Her clients find her from all over the United States and beyond via her website (headpiece.com), Instagram (@headpiececom), or through Facebook bridal groups. Though her brick-and-mortar store is in northern New Jersey, Hunt gets to know many of her clients through FaceTime, asking specific questions about their style preferences, what type of wedding vibe they are going for, and why they are choosing a handcrafted headpiece.

Most brides she works with come to her with a story. “Vintage restoration and restyle is a love story from start to finish,” she said. “They’re coming because their mother is their best friend, or they grew up with grandma, or, sadly, over 50 percent of the brides I’ve seen have lost their mother.”

In many instances, a bride wants to repurpose pieces from the veil a beloved family member wore on their wedding day. Or she wants to reconfigure a large, two-tier crown into something more modern. Or take elements from a vintage headpiece, such as pearls and crystals, and turn them into delicate hairpins.

Alyssa Marcello’s refurbished headpiece (right and opening photo) was crafted from her mother’s original crown (left) that she wore in 1991. The vintage item had been damaged in a flood, but designer Marie Hunt was able to reconstruct it. With additional elements from the original piece, Hunt created hair accessories (right) for Alyssa’s mother to wear on her daughter’s wedding day. | Photos courtesy Marie Hunt

Occasionally pieces come to Hunt in need of a complex restoration, as was the case for a 1990s headpiece that barely survived a basement flood. On top of the discoloration, the item being crushed, and the old glue, the headpiece posed unique challenges.

After she deconstructed the item (which is often the first step for Hunt when she is restoring a piece), she had to cut the beads away. Hunt then cleaned the beads extensively, along with the rhinestone band, to return them to their original luster. She replaced the rusted wire elements and reconstructed some leaves that adorned the piece by working with new crystals, and even incorporated some pearls that belonged to the bride’s mother.

The result was a beautifully restyled headpiece, as well as an attractive accessory for the mother of the bride crafted from the unused elements.

For those who are looking for something unique and modern but don’t have a vintage piece to restore, Hunt can also create something from scratch. Over the years, she has made a wedding-day hijab, a silk fabric headband with a bow, and even designed a Halloween lover’s headpiece using black crystals formed into the shape of a spider.

Designing and creating have been a part of Hunt’s life for as long as she can remember. As a little girl, she was always making things by hand, she said. One year for her mother’s birthday, she made a replica of the genie’s bottle that served as the main character’s home in the 1960s television series I Dream of Jeannie.

By age nine, Hunt picked up sewing after searching for something to use as a desk in her shared bedroom and instead found a sewing machine. “I ended up learning how to sew on that machine,” Hunt remembered. “I still sew on it today.”

By her senior year in high school, Hunt had taken every sewing course available. After graduating, she attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, where she earned a degree in fashion design. Her first job after college was at a small family-owned lingerie company. After a year in that position, Hunt was recruited to design undergarments for International Playtex. “I was a ‘fit development designer,’ meaning I perfected the patterns for production,” Hunt explained. The meticulous work helped nurture her love for fine fabrics and laces, she said, as well as her passion for creating everything by hand.

Madelyn Eltringham had her mother’s pearl and ribbon rosette headpiece (right) that she wore in 1991 transformed into a modern headband (left) for her wedding day. | Photo by Bridge + Pine Films (left) and courtesy Marie Hunt (right)

Hunt eventually met her now-husband, Jeffrey, and designed all the details for her own wedding. Her dress had a train with tiers made up of 130 yards of hand-gathered lace. “I designed the flower girl’s dress and my mother’s gown as well,” she said.

And Hunt’s own wedding veil? Ironically, she didn’t go with a vintage option. “It was a 1982 hat with a veil off the back,” she laughed.

Hunt and her husband raised their three children in New Jersey, and in 1999 purchased a second home in Edgartown. They have visited the Island every year since as a family. Now, with her children out of the house, Hunt has more time to focus on her work, with plans to finally bring her business to the Island, while keeping her store in New Jersey.

The shelves and worktables for her new studio are currently being planned and built so that she and her husband, who is retired, can spend more time here. “What I’m looking to do is to have a formal workspace…a drafting table, lighting table. We’re just building out space; it won’t be a storefront, but I’ll be working from the house and once we’re set up, I can book consultations here.”

Whether it’s back in New Jersey, or from her new workspace in Edgartown, Hunt is ready to tackle any design a bride envisions. “There’s nothing that scares or worries me about designing. If I can’t do it, I will tell the bride,” she said.

But there’s not much she can’t do, even with the oldest and most delicate of materials. Of course, some pieces are more challenging than others, but, Hunt said, she always manages to pull it off.

“If anyone can do it, I can do it,” she said.