It’s a big year for Stephen Jones, who’s readying a major exhibition at Paris’ Palais Galliera that will feature more than 400 works and delve into the milliner’s collaborations over the past 40 years with brands and designers including Dior, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler.
For spring 2025, he’s taken an even closer look at some of those relationships, in particular the designs he created for Azzedine Alaïa, Claude Montana and Mugler.
“They all loved Brancusi, and so do I. The hats are based the designs I did for them in the 1980s, the era of the grand silhouette,” Jones said during a walk-through at his Covent Garden shop and atelier.
Much of this collection reflects the Romanian sculptor’s glittering, twisted organic shapes.
One hat, a gold beret perched on a wire, looks as if it’s flying off the head. It was originally made for Mugler.
The Alaïa styles are more delicate – and less flighty.
There’s a beret dotted with metal-edged eyelets, a broderie anglaise bucket style lined in tulle, and a big, squashy sunhat, also with eyelet fabric. There is also a hat made from a tangle of tall headbands in black and Champagne.
Jones also recounted how the hats came about, with Alaïa asking him: “Stephen, tu va chicer le chapeau?” while Mugler’s direction was “Bigger, more rhinestones.” Montana wanted him to take a more sensual approach. “Darling,” he said. “It must hug the face.”
Jones listened to them all, and now a new generation gets to experience that oversized, dramatic 1980s moment.
