Philip Treacy

The world's only haute couture hat designer.

Philip Treacy was born in County Galway, Ireland in 1967. While a student at Dublin's National College of Art and Design, Treacy took a summer job with Stephen Jones in London. After winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, London, he studied fashion and millinery. While still a student, he did freelance work for fashion designers Rifat Ozbek and John Galliano.

He is now based in London, he designed hats for Alexander McQueen's white 'Haute Couture' collection at Givenchy in Paris, and has also designed for Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel.

His degree show led to financial backing and in 1990, he opened his own business.

Obsessive or not, Treacy creations are unique and in demand. The designer branched out into accessories collection of bags, gloves and leather items in 1997 and in 1999 was asked by the Federation Françoise de la Couture to show his hats during the spring-summer haute couture presentations, the first ever Haute couture show in Paris entirely devoted to hats.

Every season Treacy stages his beautiful hat collection in Paris. For Spring 2002, he provided a dreamy sense of grace. His hats of satins, feathers and Asprey diamonds were elegantly outrageous. He accompanied his hats with a selection of outfits from Chanel, Dior, Valentino and many other leading couturiers. His show drew a great number of fashion VIPs.

In April 2002, Moet and Chandon (the champagne company) threw a tribute dinner for Philip Treacy at the Victoria and Albert Museum. All the glittering guests wore his wonderful hats. Moet and Chandon has supported him financially since his early days at the Royal College of Art.

Philip has a target to get American women wearing his hats, but it is tricky since they dont need them at weddings and they dont have Ascot. But Oprah Winfrey wears one and she has predicted designer headgear is going places, so who knows. There is a whole new generation of American hatwearers waiting to be educated.

Yes, a Treacy designed Champagne bottle stopper has been launched. To celebrate his status as holder of Moet and Chandon Fashion Tribute Award, he designed a stopper in his signature Unicorn shape, which will be sold in a limited edition of 1,000. It will be sold exclusively by Selfridges in London.

A new activity announced in November is hotel design, which Philip has undertaken for the first time.

February 16th 2006 saw the launch of the collaborative collection, Philip Treacy for Umbro at The Royal Horticultural Hall during London Fashion Week. The collection promises to surprise and excite fashion and sports industries in an unusual yet successful collaboration. The launch featured modelling from Jasmine Guinness, Erin O’Connor, Alek Wek, Grace Jones and appearances from Michael Owen and Tara Palmer Tompkinson. Also in 2006, he was declared one of the 100 most influential gay and lesbian people in Britain by the Independent.