Philip Treacy
Philip Treacy
Philip Treacy OBEis an Irish milliner and designer based in London...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionDesigner
Date of Birth26 May 1967
CountryIreland
architecture balancing designing wearing
There's a technicality to designing and wearing hats. A hat is balancing the proportions of your face; it's like architecture or mathematics.
designing dollars exciting hats job million public somebody wear wedding whose
Often, what makes my job so exciting is designing for the mother whose dream has been to wear one of my hats at her child's wedding. I feel as responsible for making her feel like a million dollars as I do for somebody in the public eye.
design hats imagining kept love majesty minds
What I love most about Her Majesty is that she has kept hats alive in people's minds for more than 60 years. You can't think of her without imagining her with a hat or a crown. I would, of course, love to design one for her.
design mind hats
I always design the hat with the wearer in mind; otherwise, it's an inanimate object.
design hats
I'm Irish but I design something that is quintessentially English and I love hats.
less
I used to make clothes for my sister's dolls. I couldn't care less for the dolls, but I could make the clothes really easily.
expressive plus simpler
So my advice is to always choose something simpler - an expressive outfit, plus a hat, can be frightening.
shows
You always see a better side of where you're visiting when a local shows you around.
allowed fabric fascinated feed joining needle sewing
My mother had a sewing machine. I was never allowed to use it, but I was so fascinated by this little needle going up and down joining fabric together that I'd use it when my mother went out to feed the chickens.
buy
People, when they buy a hat, they can't explain why they want to buy it or why they want it, but they do. It's like chocolate.
best error trial until
Try on 100 different hats if you can, until you find the one that suits you best. It's a trial and error thing.
classic elizabeth epitome excess forties image major taylor ultimate worked
The classic hat image was during the Forties and Fifties, and Elizabeth Taylor was the epitome of that; she was the ultimate celebrity of excess and glamour, and she worked major sun hats.
came conformist people
Not long ago, a hat was a conformist accessory. Then the 1960s came along, and young people didn't want to wear hats.
best fact less people
I empathise with the fact that people want to look their best. A hat is all about how it makes you feel - it's so much better than a nip and tuck, and a lot less painful.