Paris, France — He once famously said « Anything can make a hat ». And he is regarded as one of the greatest of contemporary milliners, perhaps one of the greatest of all time. Born in the northwest of England in 1957, and schooled in Liverpool, Stephen Jones studied Womenswear Fashion design at Saint Martin’s School of Art in London, graduating with a degree in fashion design in 1979. He grew up by the sea and from an early age his mother would take him to gardens and art shows, he developed an aesthetic eye early on and he would go on to distill so many artistic references that he absorbed through his life experiences into his hats.

He opened his first millinery salon in London in 1980, and was soon presenting two hat collections a year. And it was in London, too, that he would discover the punk subculture and the New Romantics genre that was emerging on the music scene alongside punk. It was the time of Spandau Ballet, Kim Bowen and Boy George. As usual London was producing what it was and is best at, music and fashion. The Blitz nightclub in Covent Garden was all the rage and Jones created a number of hats for Blitz regulars. The singer Steve Strange, one of the more influential members of the New Romantic subculture movement, would be the first person to pay for a hat made by Jones.

Left: French kiss, from the Autumn/Winter 2021-2022 collection. Photo ©Peter Ashworth. Courtesy Palais Galliera. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette. Right: Planet, from the Spring/Summer 2013 collection. Photo ©Peter Ashworth. Courtesy Palais Galliera. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette

As fashion weeks succeed one another in the French capital, one of the great mainstays through the whirlwind of shows and presentations is the Stephen Jones retrospective being held at the Palais Galliera, the fashion museum of the City of Paris. For the first time in over forty years, the museum is devoting an exhibition entirely to an accessory, the hat, treating it as a work of art in its own right. Entitled Stephen Jones, Chapeaux d’Artiste (Hats of an Artist) The exhibition focuses on Stephen Jones’s creative process, the sources of inspiration behind his pieces, and the role of Paris in his work. It also underscores the milliner’s art, an art which focuses on individual hats rather than producing hats in series like hatters do.

Left: French kiss, from the Autumn/Winter 2021-2022 collection. Photo ©Peter Ashworth. Courtesy Palais Galliera. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette. Right: Coquette, from the Autumn/Winter 2004-2005 collection. Photo ©Peter Ashworth. Courtesy Palais Galliera. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette

Visitors discover a world of unbridled creativity from the boy who was born on May 31st in 1957 in the quiet coastal town of West Kirby, near Liverpool. He would go on to work with the greatest fashion designers of the 20th century and now in the 21st century. The Who’s Who includes Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana, Azzedine Alaïa and John Galliano at Givenchy. He has designed hats for the likes of The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Boy George, Diana Ross and U2. And he created the hat for Lady Gaga to wear at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The list is endless, like the creativity of Stephen Jones. The show brings together some 400 works including 170 hats as well as Jones’s archives including preparatory drawings, photographs and extracts from fashion shows. The exhibition is on until March 16th. But the milliner’s boundless creative force, energy and hats all live on. ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette

Palais Galliera, Musée De La Mode De Paris, 10, avenue Pierre Ier de Serbie, Paris 16th. http://www.palaisgalliera.paris.fr/en
And for the Mad Hatter in you: https://www.stephenjonesmillinery.com/

Or head to London to Stephen Jones Millinery at 36 Great Queen St, London WC2B 5AA, United Kingdom