Stephen Jones (milliner)

Stephen Jones was born on the Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire and educated at Liverpool College. From an early age, his mother instilled in him an appreciation of art by taking him around the Walker Art Gallery, Speke Hall, and to National Trust properties around the North West.[5]

He studied art at foundation level at the High Wycombe College of Art. In 1975 he travelled to London to see the exhibition Fashion from 1900-1939 at the V&A, which inspired him to pursue a career in the fashion industry.[1] This led him to apply to study fashion design under Bobby Hillson,[6] at the Saint Martin's School of Art, London, where he was the sole male student in his year.[5] Although he enjoyed being taught by Peter Lewis Crown, the designer-owner of the London couture house Lachasse, he had little prior sewing experience, and so in order to develop his skills Crown secured Jones a summer placement in Lachasse's tailoring workroom.[5] Jones soon requested a transfer to the next-door millinery department presided over by Shirley Hex, but was told he had to make a hat from scratch first.[5] The hat he eventually submitted, his first original millinery creation, was a cardboard pillbox covered in blue crêpe de Chine and trimmed with a plastic iris, sprayed silver that his mother had received as a free gift from a petrol station in the 1960s.[5][7] In his innocence, Jones had not realised that millinery flowers were traditionally made of silk, but Hex approved the hat, commenting on the flower's modernity.[5] Between 1976 and 1979 Jones spent his summer breaks working for Hex and learning about millinery methods and techniques.[5] Through hats he developed a keen interest in fashion history, particularly the drama and exaggerated glamour of the 1950s.[5]

Jones left Saint Martin's in 1979, the same year that he became a regular attendee of London's Blitz nightclub in Covent Garden for New Romantics and fans of new wave music.[1] Jones had been a Punk while at St Martins, but keenly embraced the New Romantic movement as its drawing of inspiration from historical dress resonated with his thinking.[5] As one of the "Blitz Kids", he hung out with the likes of Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Isabella Blow, and Jean Paul Gaultier; and shared a house with Boy George and Grayson Perry, competing with them to wear the most outrageous outfits to Blitz, including a pinstripe suit with stiletto heels.[8] Many of the Blitz Kids became his first clients, with Jones creating outlandish hats for them to wear to the club.[1][8]

Jones designed a line of hats for Fiorucci in 1979.[9] In 1980, Blitz's owner Steve Strange provided financial backing for Jones' first millinery salon, which opened nearby in the basement of the trendy store PX, Endell Street, Covent Garden on 1 October.[1][9] It was an instant success, with Jones commenting in 2008: "Overnight, I had a business".[7] On New Year's Eve 1980, Jones had his head shaved by drunk friends, leading him to discover that without hair, his head was a perfect woman's stock size, and that he could become his own fit model, developing all his ideas and designs upon himself.[7]

1982 saw Jones' first Paris fashion show and his first televised show (for the BBC's Riverside)[9] By this point, he was able to count Diana, Princess of Wales as a regular customer, in addition to his clients from Blitz, and had a hat commissioned by the Victoria & Albert Museum for their newly refurbished Costume Court.[5] This was the beginning of Jones' long and fruitful relationship with the V&A, culminating in the Hats: An Anthology exhibition of 2009 that he co-curated with Oriole Cullen.[5] One of his hats appeared on the December 1982 cover of Tatler, the first time his work had featured on a magazine cover; the hat is now in the V&A.[3][9]

Jones relocated his studio to Lexington Street in 1984. That year, Jean Paul Gaultier invited him to Paris to make hats for his show, his first designs for a Paris couturier, and he also made hats for Thierry Mugler.[9][10] After their second show together, Gaultier ensured that Jones received full credit for his hats, therefore ensuring that the Paris fashion world was made aware of his work.[11] In 1984 he also sold his first designs to a department store, Bloomingdale's in New York.[9]

Jones was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours.[12]

In 1990, Jones launched a Miss Jones diffusion line for hats, and in 1993, this was followed by Jonesgirl which is exclusive to Japan. The Stephen Jones brand has had a strong presence in Japan since 1990, when Jones struck a licensing deal for T-shirts, cosmetic bags, and handkerchiefs to be manufactured there under his name; this was followed by Stephen Jones Kimonos in 1991, gloves in 1993, sunglasses in 1992, and handbags in 2002.[9]

Jones has occasionally designed garments and accessories other than hats. In 1983 he designed dresses for Susanne Bartsch's shop in SoHo, New York and furs for Sol Feldman Furs, New York, and created his first shoe line for Sergio Rossi in 1987.[9] He has had a lasting success with his scarf range, which was launched in 1988, and continues being sold through his millinery salon as of 2009.[9] He has also experimented with non-fashion mediums, including ceramics in 1985 and interior design in 1991.[9]

Jones designed two mannequins for display at the Simone Handbag Museum in Seoul, South Korea.[13]

Chanel Iman modelling a Stephen Jones hat for the Christian Dior Haute Couture fashion show, Autumn-Winter 2009-10.

In November 1996, Stephen Jones was the only British milliner to have control of a Paris haute couture millinery studio, or atelier de la modiste, making hats for Galliano's high-profile couture shows at Dior.[14] He has worked with Galliano since 1993. Jones also created Vivienne Westwood's iconic Harris Tweed Crown of 1987.[15][16] Since the 1980s his hats have been in great demand for multiple shows per season. For the Paris collections in early 1995 alone, he was creating human-hair hats for Nicolas Ghesquière's first collection at Balenciaga and designs for Peter O'Brien at Marcel Rochas and Claude Montana as well as Galliano.[17] In 2008, he made hats for Marc Jacobs, L'Wren Scott, Basso & Brooke, Comme des Garçons, Giles Deacon, Loewe, Pollini and Walter van Beirendonck, in addition to multiple Galliano collections, four per season for Dior and two under Galliano's own label.[9] Throughout his career he has designed hats for the shows of many other designers and couturiers.

In addition to his hat collections for designers, Jones has undertaken numerous individual high-profile commissions for pop groups, musicians, actors, and other celebrities. He has also been commissioned by a number of companies to create designs for advertisements and promotions.

The 2009 exhibition, Hats: An Anthology, held at the V&A from 24 February 2009, was inspired by Cecil Beaton's landmark exhibition, Fashion: An Anthology, held at the V&A in 1971.[4] Beaton's exhibition showcased 1900-1971 garments donated by leading fashion designers of the 20th century and their clients, many of which entered the Museum collection afterwards, and firmly placed fashion within the Museum's remit.[4] Along with Oriole Cullen, V&A Curator of Modern Fashion and Textiles, Jones explored the collections of the V&A and other international collections such as those at the Fashion Museum, Bath and the Hollywood archives of Warner Bros..[4]

The exhibition was based predominantly upon hats from the V&A's collections and Stephen Jones's own archive, but also included loans from museums and collections around the world.[4] The work of up-and-coming milliners such as Noel Stewart and Nasir Mazhar was featured alongside hats by Philip Treacy, Mitza Bricard for Dior, Claude Saint-Cyr for Norman Hartnell and Vladzio d'Attainville for Cristóbal Balenciaga.[4] The exhibition also included hats worn by famous hat-wearers such as Gloria Guinness, Isabella Blow, Anna Piaggi, and Gertrude Shilling, as well as the hats of celebrities including Dita Von Teese, Madonna, and Boy George.[4] Film millinery was also featured, such as Beaton's own designs for the stage and screen versions of My Fair Lady and hats worn by Ava Gardner and Marlene Dietrich.[4] The exhibition launched during London Fashion Week with a lavish party attended by famous clients and admirers of Jones, including Piaggi, Daphne Guinness, Peter Blake, Erin O'Connor and Daisy Lowe.[14]

The exhibition and its accompanying book (also called Hats: An Anthology) were generally well received. A month after opening, record-breaking visitor attendance figures were reported.[14] The Evening Standard gave the exhibition four stars out of five.[18] In the Toronto Star, the exhibition and book were described as a celebration and a delight.[19]

The exhibition subsequently moved to New York City to be shown at the Bard Graduate Center of Decorative Arts, Design History and Material Culture, Bard College, until Spring 2012. For this exhibition, work by New York-based milliners such as Rod Keenan, Jennifer Ouellette, and Eugenia Kim, was incorporated into the show.[20]

• Philip Treacy, Irish milliner based in London

• Stephen Jones at FMD
• Me and Mr Jones - Stephen Jones Interview - Fascineshion