Get ahead, get a hat

From rock stars to royalty, headwear is enjoying a fashion revival among both men and women, and Scottish milliners are leading the charge

From rock stars to royalty, headwear is enjoying a fashion revival among both men and women, and Scottish milliners are leading the charge

Fascinators, hatinators, tricorns, bicorns, beanies and bowlers. Whatever floats your boater, there’s an explosion of hats on the international fashion scene. Time was everyone had a hat but with central heating, cars and blowdried hairstyles, they fell out of fashion and wound up dusty and unloved on the top of granny and grandad’s wardrobe. Now, however, they’re back, and at the forefront of the trend is a talented bunch of Scottish milliners whose hats are appearing everywhere from Ascot to Vogue, on the heads of the likes of Scissor Sister Ana Matronic and Kelis, and multiple weddings and fashion shoots in between.

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Think we’re talking out of our hats? Take a wander along to Musselburgh Racecourse for Ladies’ Day, on 15 June, and marvel at the headwear on show there. From roadkill to pillboxes to floppy-brimmed fedoras – the horses won’t even get a look in, although the organisers have commissioned a hat for one bemused cuddy.

It’s not just the ladies who are getting ahead. Men’s hats are experiencing a renaissance as flat caps and trilbies become the latest must-have in clubs just as much as at the races. Witness Johnny Depp beating the beanie-wearers into a cocked hat with his fabulous fedoras, while you can’t ignore the influence of Mad Men on today’s younger fashion-forward males, who are increasingly sporting an old-school ratpack glamour that recalls the heady days of Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Here’s looking at you, kids.

In a basement in Edinburgh’s Cowgate, milliner Fawns Reid knows all about the Ladies’ Day crowd that visits her Fabhatrix shop in the run-up to the race meet, demanding everything from Philip Treacy lookalikes to something that won’t blow off in a gale. “People see a Philip Treacy hat and want something like that, but I tell them I have a deal with him, which is I don’t copy him and he doesn’t copy me,” she says.

“I never thought I would say this, but Kate Middleton has had a massive effect. I never really appreciated the effect on the hat trade that a high-profile event like a royal wedding has, but it was massive. Hats were seen as a British eccentricity but now people from abroad want our hats too. A hat is a big statement, an occasion in itself. It’s a mark of distinction, and it has had a huge resurgence.”

Reid is delighted to find herself at the forefront of the revival, suppling titfers for those partaking of tiffin at the Queen’s garden parties and society bashes – especially since her first foray into hats came out of an explosion of anti-establishment feeling. “It was a punky revolutionary thing to do because no one was wearing them. It was very anti-the-Queen-Mother and all that. I started with a stall during Edinburgh Festival in the 1980s and it has just grown from there. We’re very much driven by demand, and if people want occasion hats, that’s what we make.”

With her customised green-and-amethyst tweed jacket, and a homemade Harris Tweed skirt that would give godmother of punk Vivienne Westwood a run for her money, Reid has her silver hair piled up on her head and the most fabulous pair of cat’s eye glasses this side of Barry Humphries. “I have them specially made in Paris. I don’t mind paying for someone to make something beautiful for me because that’s what I do,” says the self-taught milliner, who took her hats to New York for the Dressed to Kilt event. Reid collaborates with designer Judy R Clark, who also works in the shop, along with Reid’s daughter Iris, who joined her as a milliner last year.

Reid’s roots might have been anti-establishment but these days she has royalty parting with cash to buy her creations (or rather their equerries handing over credit cards.) “Prince Charles was in and bought one for Camilla. It was a felt pillbox with recycled strips of felt, which he was totally into because it was recycled and sustainable. I also made Prince Charles a flat cap, which had bits from a dozen recycled Harris Tweed jackets in it. So a dozen wee old men from Scotland wore it first. He said he would wear it on country walks,” she says.

Other celeb clients include Dido and Annie Lennox, who “had no airs about her whatsoever”, says Reid. “She looked great in the feathered top hat she bought, and wore it in her Cornucopia video and put it in an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.”

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Descending into Reid’s basement workshop, the scene that greets you is like an explosion in Lady Gaga’s pants drawer. Jewel-bright silks, leather, fur, tweed, flowers, feathers and lace adorn every surface, and bolts of tweed and felt line the walls. Among the hundreds of hats in evidence, there’s an Alice in Wonderland teapot creation (“I like the inversions of scale”), a hat shaped like a cow’s head, for Edinburgh’s Cow Parade (“I really let rip with that one”), and hats made from saris, old vinyl records and remaindered Chanel fabric.

According to Reid, one of the reasons for the renaissance in hats is that, despite what the high street likes to tell us, no two heads are alike. “Half of the population has 57cm heads, but that leaves the rest of us with hats that are either too big or too small. My head is big, as was my nana’s, and I grew up watching her stretching hats to fit. That’s where it started,” she says.

Along with Reid, other Scottish milliners are seeing their star rise as headgear takes off, from James Faulkner, the Telford College graduate who uses roadkill in his stop-the-traffic headgear, to Glasgow-based Pea Cooper, a Kensington and Chelsea College graduate whose witty hats for both men and women encompass fashion, theatrical and bridal styles and turned heads at London Fashion Week.

Then there’s Jenivieve Berlin, one of the nominees for Accessory Designer of the Year at the Scottish Fashion Awards, who references Isabella Blow, Alexander McQueen and Johnny Rotten in her edgy, cabaret-style creations that are a mass of feathers, veils and baubles.

In Edinburgh, Joyce Paton creates sculptural headpieces, often using Harris Tweed – from which she created a centenary gown and headwear. Now a couturier as well as milliner, she has launched a collection inspired by the drama of the Venetian carnival and uses vintage lace along with her trademark found objects, such as art deco brooches and pheasant feathers. Paton is also a nominee at next month’s Scottish Fashion Awards.

Last, but definitely not least, is Glasgow-based William Chambers, who is thrilled to be working with celebrated milliner Stephen Jones – whose collaborations include the likes of Westwood, Thierry Mugler, Jean Paul Gaultier and Dior. The A-list hatter has signed up the 33-year-old Scot as part of his Hedonism initiative for the British Fashion Council, which celebrates new talent. After wowing London Fashion Week, the collection will be on display at Ascot in June. With a ticket for the royal enclosure, Chambers will see his classically chic hats on display as well as on the punters.

He predicts that hats are about to be big in every sense, since rule-changes at the royal enclosure will rule out flimsy fascinators in favour of more substantial creations.

“There will be a move towards proper headpieces and bigger hats. People will move away from all these fluffy feather things, which are more of an afterthought. I hate fascinators. Hats will be more demure, sophisticated, less brash,” he says.

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The Heriot-Watt Scottish College of Textiles and Design graduate from Lanarkshire credits his mentor, Stephen Jones, with a part in the millinery revival. “He’s supporting the next generation of hat-makers,” says Chambers. “He has got a hugely successful business, and doesn’t have to do it. He’s my hero when it comes to millinery and his hats are full of humour.”

Chambers was Accessory Designer of the Year at the 2010 Scottish Fashion Awards, and his hats also have plenty of attitude. He was delighted to see his creations grace the pages of fashion bible Vogue in December and worn on stage by not-so-shrinking violets Ana Matronic, Roisin Murphy and Kelis.

“I love Ana Matronic, and she’s not shy, so it was brilliant when she wore my hat on stage and on tour. Kelis too. And when people like that wear your hats, it’s a real thrill.”

Again, the Duchess of Cambridge comes up in conversation, the milliner paying homage to what will no doubt be a lifelong service to hats.

“The Catherine Middleton effect is huge. She’s opening doors and allowing young women to have the confidence to wear hats again. Hats go in and out of fashion but proper hats are back.”

Not that Chambers has any plans to relocate. Like the other milliners leading the Scottish wave, he’s happy to stay in his native country. “Sometimes I think it would be easier if I lived in London but I love Scotland too much. I love the Scottish sense of style, especially Glaswegians’ – they’re all up for it and I have a great client base here. My hats are for women who love hats, who want something they can’t get anywhere else, and they’re all bespoke, couture pieces, stitched by hand.

“There has been a revival happening in the millinery industry for a long while now, but this year will be the biggest yet.”

www.fabhatrix.com; www.williamchambers.co.uk; www.jbmillinery.com; www.joycepaton.com; www.pea coopermillinery.com

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