Stephen Jones and the art of Millinery
Born in 1957 in Cheshire, Stephen Jones studied at Saint Martin’s School of Art where he was the sole male student in his year.
Triple Vision: hat designed by Stephen Jones. 2011. Courtesy of MoMu Antwerp
In 1979 he left the punk scene to embrace the New Romantic movement when he became a regular attendee of London’s Blitz nightclub in Covent Garden. As one of the “Blitz Kids” he used to meet Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Isabella Blow and Jean Paul Gultier. Also he shared a house with Boy George and Grayson Perry. Many of the Blitz Kids became his first clients and Jones created outlandish hats for them to wear to the club.
Hat with feathers designed by Stephen Jones. 1998. Courtesy of MoMu Antwerp
In the same year, Jones designed a line of hats for Fiorucci. The next year the Blitz’s owner Steve Strange decided to invest on his talent and made him open his first millinery salon, in Covent Garden. After this first success, in 1982, Jones had his debut at Paris fashion week and Princess Diana became a regular costumer. Also he started a lucky collaboration with Victoria & Albert Museum, which began with one hat commissioned for their newly refurbished Costume Court and culminated in 2009 with the Hats: An Anthology exhibition.
Catalogue of the exhibition "Hats: An anthology" at the V&A in collaboration with Stephen Jones. 2009. Courtesy of MoMu, Antwerp
Through his career Jones has created hats for the catwalk shows of many leading couturiers and fashion designers, such as John Galliano at Dior and Vivienne Westwood. An ambitious style, his inventiveness and the high level of technical expertise with which he realises his ideas are the reason he is now considered one of the world’s most important milliners of the late 20th century.
Ensemble designed by Jean Paul Gaultier and hat by Stephen Jones, 1985. Courtesy of Les Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Search through Europeana Fashion Portal other fabulous Stephen Jones‘ creations.