Philip Treacy

Philip Treacy- Irish Milliner 

Gotta keep tabs on those Irish!

-Philip Treacy is a "hat maker" born in Galway. He has 7 brothers and one sister. 

-In 1985 he moved to Dublin to pursue fashion design and 3 years later he was off to London College of design to pursue hat design on a scholarship. 

-Philip took one of his hats to Tatler mag where the style director Isabella Blow saw it and just fell in love. Isabella was getting married that year and had Philip design a hat for the occasion. 

-In 1991 at age 23 he was asked to work with Karl Lagerfeld who at the time was chief designer for Chanel. He continued to design hats for Lagerfeld for Chanel for the next 10 years.

- 1993 he staged his first fashion show and a year later he had his own shop in London

-1997 began an accessory line

- 1999 designed hats for designer Alexander McQueen at the Givenchy house in Paris

And the timeline goes on. Philip has collaborated with many of the top designers such as Ralph Lauren, Donna Karen, Alexander McQueen etc. He has also designed hats for entertainers such as Lady Gaga and Grace Jones as well as movies such as Sex in the City 1 and 2. Sarah Jessica Parker is one of his clients as well.

"I used it to make clothes for my sister’s dolls. I couldn’t care less for the dolls but I could make the clothes really easily. I was making bust points before I knew what a bust point was.”

“I remember one day being in a neighbour’s house and he said to my father: ‘Don’t you think it weird that this boy is making dress for dolls.’ And my father said: ‘Whatever makes him happy.’ You have got to see where I come from to understand how profound that was. For a person of his generation it was very unusual.”

"I totally disagreed with the perception of hats at the time and I thought: ‘I’ll change that.’”

Gladys Palmer sketch

"I only feel dressed in the morning when I’ve got my thimble on my middle finger. It stays there all day.”

Treacy giving a demo on how to make a hat!

So what sparked this love for hats you ask?

Yesterday Treacy visited Academy of Art University to give a demo on just how is hats are made and I nearly died.  Millinery is in my future. It just has to be!