Hats off to Hats!
British milliner Stephen Jones celebrates 30 years in fashion with Vakko Fashion Center. After working with many well known fashion muses such as Boy George and Duran Duran following his graduation from Central Saint Martins, he is definitely one of the most extraordinary milliner of the century. Playing close to the borderline of imagination his designs have certainly became more than just fashion and transformed into art pieces of their own. This exhibition holds a collection of hats produced in collaboration with fashion designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, Comme des Garçons, Christian Dior, Azzedine Alaia, Marc Jacobs namely and many more. Besides the exhibition, I do believe the reason Stephen Jones is as innovative as he is, because of who he is. When asked in an interview he claimed that he was a paraglider and with his great sense of humour reflecting on his designs it is almost impossible not to awe the designer. He said that although it is hard to mention just one name, Dita Von Teese possibly is the best model for his hats due to her character and the fact that she could turn something extremely simple and “make it look fabulous”.
Dita on the other hand has an appreciation for the designer and his designs; “Stephen understands how the tiny details make the difference between a cute hat and a legendary hat… his chapeaux go far beyond the chic and in fact, become the reference for all others. His work manages to reinvent and redefine, rather than merely carry on the tradition of hat making. There’s something special that masters of millinery from the golden age of hat wearing knew, and Stephen has that rare talent that sets him apart from any other living hat designer. His joy in his work is visible in each creation.”
In another interview Stephen Jones talked about wearing a hat in the United States versus the UK. He said; ” If a T-shirt is the ball gown of America, a baseball cap is its tiara”, making it loud and clear that hats are more suitable to where they belong. However, in each interview he points out that there is always an occasion to wear a hat, and always a different hat to wear on each occasion. For this exhibition alone, beloved Anna Piaggi pays homage to Stephen Jones via a photo collage. Together with Jones, Bardo Fabiani and Luca Stoppini, she created a series of images of her own collection of Stephen Jones hats in her apartment in Milan.
The exhibition will be open to visit until the 7th of June 2011
niente by nil
