Philip Treacy Knows a Great Hat Can Change Everything
The first couturier you worked for was Karl Lagerfeld, and that was a year after you graduated from art school. This summer, you did the headpieces for Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Balenciaga couture debut, including an enormous black rooster-feather headpiece that enveloped all of Gigi Hadid. The show was outside, and it was one zillion degrees—how did you not faint from heat and exhaustion?
We are dedicated followers of fashion—that’s why, 35 years later, we’re still at the couture show in the baking heat.
What was it like growing up in Ahascragh, Ireland?
I am the second of eight children. I couldn’t understand why, at a certain point in the school day, the girls did sewing and the boys did something else. When you’re 6, you don’t really have any inhibitions. So I said to the teacher, “Can I do that?” She taught me to sew, and then she democratized it by teaching all the boys to sew and crochet and knit too.
What was your exposure to design at that point?
I didn’t even know what design was! But I grew up across the road from the church, and weddings were like couture shows. So I went to every wedding—
Strangers’ weddings?
Yes! I’d stand in the back and love everything about it: the cars, the parades, the streamers. I’d collect all the confetti afterward. Eventually, I got a scholarship to go to the Royal College of Art to study fashion design, and I continued making hats. I did some work with Stephen Jones. But hats are sort of a feeling—you’re either good at it or not.
What’s been the best hat reaction you’ve ever received?
A couple of months ago, I was coming into work when this van pulled up, and three builders got out in overalls. One of them yelled, “Still killing it, mate!”
What do people get wrong about hats?
We are dealing with something that has gone from being a symbol of conformity to a symbol of rebellion. The great misconception is that you need confidence to wear them. Actually, a beautiful hat gives you confidence.
Who’s your fantasy hat client?
Isabella Blow was a fantasy client.
I’m happy you brought up Isabella. She was such an incredible fashion icon and muse to many designers, including, of course, Alexander McQueen. How did you meet?
[Fashion editor, journalist, and art director] Michael Roberts was shooting a story for Tatler called “The Green Hat,” about a 1920s book [of the same name], and they couldn’t find a green hat, so I made one. Isabella walked into the room, and I remember thinking, Why is there lipstick on the side of her face? She didn’t really apply lipstick with the mirror, of course. She was wearing a transparent John Galliano knitted top with a bra underneath, and yellow satin Manolo Blahnik shoes. Everybody else in the office—and I mean everybody else—was in a navy suit with a white top and pearls.
Sounds fabulous.
It was, but Isabella was not taken seriously by a lot of people. Everybody loves Alexander McQueen and Isabella Blow now, but they didn’t necessarily love them when they were alive. I remember Isabella taking a very important fashion editor to McQueen’s “Highland Rape” show, and the editor said, “Well, maybe he should do theater.”
She brought you into the fashion fold?
One day, she decided that I was going to work with Karl Lagerfeld. She brought me to a British Vogue party, grabbed my hand, and took me right up to Karl and said, “Karl, this is Philip, and he makes beautiful things.” She told Karl she was doing him a favor!
Would you agree that the only woman who did more for hats than Isabella in your lifetime was Queen Elizabeth II?
The royal family has kept hats alive in the imagination of people all over the world. I never met the Queen Mother, but I designed a hat for her when she turned 100, and she wrote this beautiful letter back. A friend gave her the hat for Christmas, and I noticed she handwrote my letter on the 26th of December.
You made Queen Camilla’s hat for her wedding.
I’ve designed for the present Queen for 25 years. Through her, I’ve had these unbelievable experiences, like royal weddings, royal funerals, and the ultimate: the coronation. I fit the King and the Queen for three crowns. It’s quite daunting to work on something representing 1,000 years of history and that is on every stamp and letter box of the country. I did meet the late Queen [Elizabeth II] a few times too.
What was she like?
Well, she glowed. The first time we met was at an event for designers at Buckingham Palace, and she went from person to person and said, “What do you do?” When she asked me, I said, “I make hats, ma’am.” And she said, “You mate cats?” And I said, “No, no, I make hats.” And she said, “Am I the only person who wears a hat these days?” I had been told it’s rude to ask the Queen a question, but I couldn’t help it. I said, “Ma’am, do you mind if I ask you: Do you enjoy wearing hats?” And she kind of stiffened a bit, looked at me, and said, “Well, it’s part of the uniform.” I thought that was brilliant.
Grooming by Takuya Uchiyama for Maria Nila; Photo Assistant: Isabel MacCarthy; Retouching: ArtPost.
