Podcast: Stephen Jones, the milliner most coveted by haute couture labels

By

Emma RUFFENACH

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Mar 8, 2023

In this new episode (in English) of the LuxurynsightXFashionNetwork podcast series, renowned milliner Stephen Jones talks to Godfrey Deeny, global editor-in-chief of FashionNetwork.com, about his hat-making career and the most daring creations he fashioned for top luxury labels.

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After studying at prestigious London fashion academy Central Saint Martins, Jones has collaborated with countless international designers, fashion icons and haute couture labels since the end of 1970s, from Vivienne Westwood to Jeremy Scott, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Daniel Roseberry and many more. He belongs to the small circle of the most influential milliners of the late 20th and early 21st century. 

Hat-maker to luxury labels and stars

“The first fashion show I did was for Zandra Rhodes. She became a friend, and asked me if I made hats. She was my first entree to the fashion world,” recalls Jones, who worked with the British designer while at the same time opening his first hat shop on October 1, 1980, in London, in the Covent Garden district.

Bowler hats, fascinators, broad-brimmed hats, bonnets: collaborating with John Galliano, Jones earned his stripes in the world of hat-making. “It was in 1993 that I first worked with him, and that was for his Princess Lucretia collection, the one with huge crinolines that was shown in Paris,” says Jones, who for that collection designed hats with oversized veils.

For 25 years, Jones designed stylish hats as a creative consultant to Dior, but has also created more original and eccentric headgear for artists such as Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Mick Jagger. He says that his success was due to “the beginning of MTV. Suddenly, what singers looked like seemed much more important than what they sounded like,” says Jones.

In the podcast, Jones - whose creations have been exhibited at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre Museum in Paris - also offers expert advice to talented young designers aspiring to a fashion career, with plenty of anecdotes about his own journey.