Phillip Treacy: Madhatter of Couture!
by Christopher Uvenio
1966: Born in Ahascragh, a tiny village in County Galway in
the West of Ireland. Philip lived with his parents, seven brothers and a
sister across the road from the village church. “As a small child, I
loved to watch the weddings there.
They were the equivalent of fashion
shows to me. The dresses that people wore, I couldn’t believe them, they
were incredible. It seemed so glamorous to see these creatures appear
in these extraordinary clothes, as we didn’t have much glamour where I
come from.”
1972: “I started sewing when I was about
five. I remember being with the teacher in school. The boys did
woodwork or something, the girls were sewing and I thought: ‘Why can’t I
do that?’ I asked the teacher and she said: ‘Okay.’ She was incredibly
strict and, looking back, she could have just whacked me around the
head. I started making dresses and hats for my sister’s dolls.
My mother
had chickens, geese, pheasants and ducks, so all the ingredients of the
hat were in my house. My mother had a sewing machine. I was never
allowed to use it, but I was so fascinated by this little needle going
up and down joining fabric together that I’d use it when my mother went
out to feed the chickens. There was like five minutes to get it out. If
my mother found me I would be in a lot of trouble. I used 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 bust points were. I remember being in a neighbour’s house and
he said to my father: ‘Don’t you think it’s weird that this boy is
making dresses 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.”
1985: Moved to Dublin to study fashion
at the National College of Art & Design, where he made hats “as a
hobby” to go with outfits he designed on the course. “Nobody really had
much time for the hat because it was a fashion school, but there did
come a point when I was more interested in making the hats than the
outfits.” When the students had to arrange work experience, Philip chose
to spend six weeks with Stephen Jones, the London hat designer.
1987: Video of Philip as a student from
Ireland’s National
Broadcasterhttp://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/1862-before-fame/471750-early-designs-from-student-philip-treacy/
1988: Won a place on the MA fashion
design course at the Royal College of Art in London. “When I was
interviewed I didn’t know whether to play down the hats or play up the
hats, but they were thinking of setting up a hat course so I became
their guinea pig. After one day there I said to my tutor Sheilagh Brown:
“What should I do? Should I make hats or clothes?’ She said: ‘make
hats.’ It was very practical, not a great revelation.”
1989: Philip took one of his hats to
Michael Roberts, fashion director of Tatler magazine, and his style
editor, Isabella Blow. “Our conversation that day was like twenty
seconds and I thought nothing of it. A few weeks afterwards, the
secretary at the college said: ‘Some Lady has been phoning up. She wants
to know what your schedule‘s like for the next six months.’ I didn’t
know what she was talking about, but it turned out to be Issie.
Issie
was getting married and had decided I was going to make a hat for her.”
Having chosen a medieval theme for her wedding dress, Issie asked Philip
to make an appropriate head dress. “I wanted to base the hat on a
1930’s play called The Miracle which Lady Diana Cooper was in. I
suggested to Issy that maybe this would be good for the wedding. I
couldn’t believe that I’d hit upon a person who didn’t expect tulle and
veiling and pearls for her wedding hat.”
1990: Graduated from the Royal College
with first class honours and set up a workshop in the basement of Issy
and Detmar Blow’s house on Elizabeth Street Belgravia. “Issy was living
upstairs with her resident hat maker in the basement working away all
night long coming up with goodies. Suddenly all these wild people
pitched up at all hours of the night trying on hats. Issy and I were
like Harold and Maude trekking around London in a car. We’d go to an
exhibition, or go to visit someone. We’d go and get books. We’d go and
have a drink. And all our talk was of hats.”
1991: Summoned to Paris to meet Karl
Lagerfeld, chief designer at Chanel. “I was 23 and I’d just left school,
I didn’t know whether to call him Mr Lagerfeld or whatever. I was
totally intimidated but Issie was exactly herself. She just walked into
the house of Chanel and said: We’d like some tea please.” Philip went on
to design hats for Lagerfeld at Chanel for ten years. The first hat he
designed was the twisted birdcage, photographed by Patrick Demarchelier
and worn on the cover of British Vogue by Linda Evangelista. Philip won
his first British Fashion Council award as British Accessory Designer of
the year.
1992: Won his second British Designer of
the year award (Philip was to win three more) and started designing
hats for the High Street. “Hats are for everyone. We all have a head so
we have the possibility to wear a hat. You feel better for wearing them.
I was happy to be able to make hats that anyone could afford.” That
November, a friend gave Philip the gift of a puppy. “The pup I was
supposed to have was this pretty Jack Russell cross called Linda.
Trailing behind her was her brother. A beautiful thing. Tiny. The size
of two mugs. Pale pink with a black spot. I couldn’t resist him, so I
said, ‘I’d really like that one. When I took him out people would ask
what he was, and I’d say he was a piglet because he was so pink and
sleek, so I called him Mr.Pig.”
1993: Staged his first fashion show- all
black hats- in the Harvey Nichols department store during London
Fashion Week. The supermodels of the era- Naomi Campbell, Yasmin Le Bon,
Kate Moss, Stella Tennant and Christy Turlington- all modelled for him.
“I phoned up Christy Turlington to say that I was having a show and
would she do it for me? She agreed and the rest followed on. Naomi
Campbell’s agent called the next day.
Kate Moss complained that I hadn’t
asked her. London was in a lull then. The media went crazy when all
those girls did my show and it completely changed perceptions of the
hat.” Began working with Gianni Versace and Valentino.
1994: Opened his own shop at 69
Elizabeth Street. “It’s a little gold box with our window to the world.
Our customers are everyone from a young girl who’s saved up for a £150
rainwear trilby to this very distinguished gentleman of about 70. He
comes in every summer to order 20 Couture hats to entertain the ladies
who will be staying on his yacht. It doesn’t matter how much people pay
for them: everyone wants to look a million dollars in a hat.”
1996: Exhibited in the Florence
Biennale, fashion meets art. Philip collaborated with furniture designer
Tom Dixon. “It was interesting but it took me a while to get over my
embarrassment because I thought of art as a sacred cow. I make hats, not
art. But Franca Sozzani (editor of Italian Vogue) asked me to do it and
Franca is like Issie and Sheilagh Brown- one of those people you never
say ‘no’ to.”
1997: Staged his first show in New York.
Launched an accessory collection of stingray bags and gloves, geometric
and laser cut leather. Work included in the cutting edge Exhibition at
the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. The accessories sell all over
the world.
1998: Exhibited in addressing the
century at the Hayward Gallery and satellites of fashion at the Crafts
Council, both in London.
1999: Designed hats for Alexander
McQueen’s white Haute Couture collection at Givenchy in Paris, which
included the gilded ram’s horns from Issie’s Soay sheep (of Spanish
blood to make their horns more curly) and also designed for Karl
Lagerfeld at Chanel. “Having studied fashion design it helped me greatly
when I started working with designers because I understood how the
clothes draped or moved and the proportions. What I didn’t understand as
a student was that fashion isn’t clothes, fashion is much more
interesting than that, it’s a feeling and a mood not dress-making.”
Staged his second show in New York.
2000: At the invitation of the chamber
syndicale de la Haute Couture, staged the orchid collection, the first
ever Haute Couture show in Paris devoted to hats.
September: Hat Block exhibition Unlikely Sculpture, London.
2001: Collaborated with the artist
Vanessa Beecroft on an installation at the Venice Biennale. “Another
Franca Sozzani gig. She phoned up and said would I make so many masks
for this artist, Vanessa Beecroft, by such a date. By chance, I was
flying to New York the next day, so I met Vanessa while I was there.
She
was planning an installation of naked girls wearing Black leather
masks. It sounded rather S&M, which isn’t really me, so I said: ‘Why
not make the masks translucent to enhance the femininity of the
wearers?’
April: Irish Museum of Modern Art exhibition Unlikely sculpture, Dublin.
October: Fondazione Nicola Trussardi Unlikely Sculpture, Milan.
2002: Won the Moet & Chandon award
for luxury and exhibited the hats credited for Isabella Blow in When
Philip met Isabella at the Design Museum in London with the launch of
the first Philip Treacy book published by Assouline to catalogue the
exhibition.
2003: January - Paid homage to Andy Warhol with his third Haute Couture Show in Paris.
February: Launch of the Limited EditionAndy Warhol waterproof accessory range available worldwide.
April: When Philip met Isabella
exhibition began its world tour opening at the Melbourne Fashion
Festival and then to the Power House museum in Sydney.
October: Presented with The Dream Weaver
award by the Fashion Group International along side Jean Paul Gaultier,
Dolce Gabbanna and Donna Karen in New York.
2004: Philip is now taking his aesthetic
into other disciplines, using his sculptural forms as a medium for
other objects, such as glass wear and furniture.
September: Launch of the Portrait Chair, part of Habitat's 40th Anniversary project.
November: Presented with International
Designer of the Year at the China Fashion Awards in Shanghai. This was
followed by a twenty-look couture show with top Chinese super models and
Alek Wek. ''I was honoured to be recognised by a culture rich in hats
and headdress'. Glamour is a world-wide currency.''
2005: Philip was appointed design
director for the interiors of Edward Hotel’s flagship property, The g.
Working alongside Douglas Wallace Architects and Designers the hotel
opened in November. ''I am a perfectionist and like to create pieces
that people love to wear. With The g, we will apply the same principles
and create a place where people will love to be.''
April: Philip created the hats for the wedding of HRH The Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles.
2006: Philip Treacy for Umbro launches
at London Fashion Week. The collection is a fusion of the two brands and
delivers a complete package of men's clothing that is a synthesis of
both brands' strengths and demonstrates: glamour, colour, shape,
quality, movement and performance. The collection combines all these
elements, and the design, attention to detail, fabrication and cut, make
it the ultimate expression of luxury fashion and performance wear. “I
felt sportswear lacked in style, I wanted to design a collection that is
both functional and stylish. Sports-wear is a language in fashion
today.”
April: Philip is given an Honorary
Doctorate, honoris causa, by The National University of Ireland. “I make
hats because I love hats. It‘s an enigmatic object that servers the
human purpose only of beautification and embellishment and making one
feel good whether you’re the observer of the spectacle or the wearer. A
hat is a positive symbol. A good hat is the ultimate glamour accessory.
It thrills observers and makes the wearer feel a million dollars. This
creates a high status of desirability and although the images received
can seem out of this world the conspicuous consumer relates strongly to
it.
The message is simple and absolute, a great hat exists outside its
own time. I believe in beauty and elegance and communicating thoughts
and dreams in a visual way. I started designing hats 15 years ago while a
student at the Royal College of Art. It was at a time when hats were
perceived publicly as something worn by ladies of a certain age, and
something from a bygone era. I thought this was totally ridiculous and
simply believed “we all have a head, so everybody has the possibility to
wear a hat.” I love to work with my hands making something from nothing
– turning 2 dimensional material into a 3 dimensional object is the
penultimate moment of creativity of my craft. I have had the greatest
pleasure of having the opportunity to challenge people’s perception of
what a hat should look like in the 21st century.”
May: Philip contributed his Haute
Couture Orchids to the AngloMania exhibition at The Metropolitan in New
York. Over the past 30 years, British fashion has been defined by a
knowing and self-conscious historicism. In their search for novelty,
designers have looked to past styles with an appetite that is as
audacious as it is rapacious. Focusing on their historicizing
tendencies, AngloMania presented a series of tableaux based on Britain’s
literary and artistic traditions.
2007: Isabella Blow sadly died on 7 May
2007. The legend that enthralled fashionistas with her uncanny ability
to spot trend, discover models, and unearth new designers is mourned by
an industry that has inexplicably lost a muse with whom there was never a
dull moment. Her taste was unorthodox and her style was uncompromising.
The Stylist, muse and taste maker Isabella Blow was a true original.
“Isabella was the first extraordinary interesting person I met in this
country when I moved here from Ireland. In 20 years I have met all my
heroes and nobody in my honest true estimation surpassed her. She was
incredible. I thought there must be others like her, but there wasn’t.
Everyone was boring in comparison to her. I will miss her laugh, her
passion and her humanity. I went to my studio today and Isabella is
everywhere. In every hat I made, every corner I turn – she is there. I
will always miss her.”
June: For the first time Philip Treacy
presented a fashion show within the Bessborough Restaurant during Royal
Ascot. The exhibition When Philip Met Isabella travelled to The Marble
Palace in St Petersburg. It was opened with a dramatic 50 look show in
the Astoria Hotel.
September: Philip collaborated with Ralph Lauren, Donna Karen, McQueen and Rifat Ozbek for their spring summer 2008 shows.
November: Philip’s first ever solo show
in Ireland at The g hotel in his home county of Galway. Philip is
appointed as an honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the
British Empire (OBE) awarded by HRH Prince Charles and HRH The Duchess
of Cornwall in Clarence House surrounded by his family. The honour was
conferred on Philip by Her Majesty The Queen in recognition of his
services to the British Fashion industry.
2008: Designed and photographed the
Royal Ascot advertising resulting in a sell out week. As well as
presenting his Couture designs again in the Bessborough Resturant.
Commissioned by Italian Vogue Gioello to photograph specially designed
hats and jewellery on Daphne Guinness. Designed and art directed Grace
Jones’ first concert in 20 years at The Royal Festival Hall for the
Massive Attack Meltdown Festival.
2009: Designed and art directed the first leg of Grace Jones’ Hurricane tour beginning in Australia and finishing in the UK.
2010: Philip Treacy was one of six
contemporary, internationally renowned Irish fashion designers featured
on a set of Irish postage stamps issued by An Post. The other designers
featured were Paul Costelloe, Louise Kennedy, John Rocha, Lainey Keogh
and Orla Kiely.
2011: Thirty six hats designed by Treacy
were worn at the Royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine
Middleton on 29th April
2012: Philip Treacy held his first
runway show in 12 years during London Fashion Week in September 2012. It
was opened by Lady Gaga in her inimitable show stopping style.
2013: The book Philip Treacy by Kevin
Davies was published providing a unique, behind-the-scenes portrait of
one of the world's most famous and influential milliners. Philip Treacy
allowed a single photographer, his friend Kevin Davies, personal access
to his life, studio and working method for the past 20 years. The result
is a wonderful exploration into the world of a true craftsman, designer
to the stars and creative magician.
No comments:
Post a Comment