Stephen Jones

Stephen Jones OBE (born 1957) is a British milliner based in London, who is considered one of the most radical and important milliners of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. His work is known for its inventiveness and high level of technical expertise. Jones co-curated the 2009 exhibition Hats: An Anthology for the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Early life Stephen Jones was born on the Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire and educated at Liverpool College. From an early age, his mother instilled in him an appreciation of art by taking him around the Walker Art Gallery, Speke Hall, and to National Trust properties around the North West.

He studied art at foundation level at the High Wycombe College of Art. In 1975 he travelled to London to see the exhibition Fashion from 1900 to 1939 at the V&A, which inspired him to pursue a career in the fashion industry. This led him to apply to study fashion design under Elisabeth Suter, at the Saint Martin's School of Art, London, where he was the sole male student in his year. In his innocence, Jones had not realised that millinery flowers were traditionally made of silk, but Hex approved the hat, commenting on the flower's modernity. Many of the Blitz Kids became his first clients, with Jones creating outlandish hats for them to wear to the club. It was an instant success, with Jones commenting in 2008: "Overnight, I had a business". After their second show together, Gaultier ensured that Jones received full credit for his hats, therefore ensuring that the Paris fashion world was made aware of his work. In 1984 he also sold his first designs to a department store, Bloomingdale's in New York.

Collections This is a list of Stephen Jones' bi-annual hat collections since 1980. The collections from Fall 1981 to Fall 1984 were unnamed. Since the 1980s his hats have been in great demand for multiple shows per season. For the Paris collections in early 1995 alone, he was creating human-hair hats for Josephus Thimister's first collection at Balenciaga and designs for Peter O'Brien at Marcel Rochas and Claude Montana as well as Galliano. In 2008, he made hats for Marc Jacobs, L'Wren Scott, Thom Browne, Comme des Garçons, Giles Deacon, Loewe, and Walter van Beirendonck, Throughout his career he has designed hats for the shows of many other designers and couturiers.

Stephen Jones and popular culture In addition to his hat collections for designers, Jones has undertaken numerous individual high-profile commissions for pop groups, musicians, actors, and other celebrities. He has also been commissioned by a number of companies to create designs for advertisements and promotions.

Music Grace Jones, Diana Ross, George Michael, Spandau Ballet and Culture Club were among Jones's first high-profile celebrity clients in the 1980s. The Evening Standard gave the exhibition four stars out of five. In the Toronto Star, the exhibition and book were described as a celebration and a delight.

The exhibition subsequently moved to The Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia, then New York City at the Bard Graduate Center of Decorative Arts, Design History and Material Culture. Its final venue was The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem Massachusetts. It was noted as the second most visited decorative arts exhibition in the world, second only to American Woman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Stephen Jones & The Accent of Fashion This exhibition in 2010 at MoMuFashion Museum in Antwerp, Belgium celebrated 30 years of Stephen Jones Millinery. MoMu houses the largest collection of SJ hats, in 2010 more than 120 items thanks to a long term loan by the Antwerp private collectors Geert Bruloot and Eddy Michaels. This exhibition examined the various themes present in his work; Adventure, Science, Rococo, Glamour, Spotlight, and his unique relationship with fashion icon Anna Piaggi. It displayed his collaborations with full looks from, Azzedine Alaia, John Galliano, Claude Montana, Walter van Beirendonck, Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garçons, Thierry Mugler, Marc Jacobs, and Christian Dior. After a successful run in Belgium it travelled in 2011 to The Vakko Fashion Institute, Istanbul, where it showcased Asian inspiration.

Stephen Jones, Chapeaux d'artiste The exhibition 'Stephen Jones, chapeaux d'artiste', at the Palais Galliera in October 2024 - March 2025 For the first time in over forty years at the Palais Galliera, an exhibition was devoted entirely to an accessory, the hat, treating it as a work of art in its own right. The exhibition focuses on Stephen Jones's creative process, the sources of inspiration behind his pieces, and the role of Paris in his work.

There were close to 400 works in the exhibition, including more than 170 hats, as well as Jones's archives (preparatory drawings, photographs, extracts from fashion shows, etc.) and around forty silhouettes complete with clothes and hats. These 'looks' were an indicator of the collaboration between Stephen Jones and some of the world's leading fashion houses, in particular Christian Dior, who he has worked with for nearly thirty years.