"Hats have the ability to evoke a sense of history and tradition, to take us back in time and to tell a story."
— Stephen Jones
Every hat carries centuries of tradition in its construction. When I block a hat on a wooden form, I am using the same technique milliners used in the 1800s. The tools, the steam, the hands-on shaping process: it is all essentially unchanged. And that connection to history is something I find deeply meaningful.
At events like the Melbourne Cup and Royal Ascot, wearing a hat connects you to a tradition that stretches back generations. You are part of a continuum of women who understood that a hat is not just clothing. It is ceremony, celebration, and culture.
"When I work on a vintage hat block from the 1930s, I sometimes wonder about the hats it has shaped before mine. Every block has a history, and every new hat adds to it."
— Kathryn Lee
A Little History
Jones was inspired to become a milliner while studying at Saint Martin's School of Art in the late 1970s, after immersing himself in London's punk and New Romantic club scenes. He saw that hats were a way to create identity and tell stories. That insight has guided his career for over four decades, during which he has become one of the most historically knowledgeable milliners working today.
