Auckland milliner, Kay Marie Cruikshank, made hats under the label Kay Marie Millinery. Her salon was located downstairs in Vulcan Lane, Auckland. Kay Marie was known for her one-off model hats which she made for weddings, funerals, christenings and garden parties. This hat was owned by Lorna Waller (1912-1997), an artist and aesthete. Born in New Zealand, Lorna travelled overseas when young and settled in Melbourne. While at the National Gallery School in the mid-1930s, she took up with her teacher, the artist Napier Waller. They did not marry until 1954, when his first wife died. An independent income enabled Lorna to maintain an apartment in Spring Street, decorated in a bohemian style. The leopard skin prints and slacks she once wore to the Lyceum Club proved too much for conservative Melbourne: she was told to go home and change.