Whats not surprising: that its deemed themillinerStephen Jones worthy of this honor.
Of the 400 works in the exhibition 170 are hats.
There was this big group of girls wearing beige knitwear.
Stephen Jones at the London nightclub Blitz, 1979.
And there were three punks on the other side, he recalled.
Do I go beige knitwear or do I go to punk?
I went to punk.
Chapeau Charles James.
You have to find your own way and your own way will make sense to you.
From then on and with the encouragement of his friends, it seems as though his destiny was set.
But really, Jones says, it was my friends who guided me rather than having this huge ambition.
A model in Jones’s Saint Martin’s School of Art diploma collection, worn by Jane Leonard, 1979.
Since opening his salon in 1980, Jones has been making hats under his own name.
This began in 1984 with Jean Paul Gaultier, whom he credits with kick-starting his Paris career.
Other early collaborators included Comme des Garcons, Vivienne Westwood, Claude Montana, and Thierry Mugler.
Rose Royce hat, fall 1996.
Being a milliner, I could really get into their minds, he explains.
What we make with a designer is something I wouldnt make myself and something they wouldnt make themselves.
Its something we give birth to together.
Chapeau Little Fishes, spring 2011.
During our condensed time together, the anecdotes were dizzying.
And the story doesnt end there.
Many of his early collaborators have passed, but the memories and the looks live on.
Stephen Jones, 2024.
It was Thierrys sense of theater; Claudes sense of tailoring and the grand gesture.
Jones insists he is not that nostalgic looking backevery hat was new once, he says.
And hes confident that there will always be future hats to make.
At one point during our second walkthrough, he politely excused himself.
It was one of those time-collapsing moments when the past and present converge.
I left them to reminisce as I took my own final spin.
There you have it.
