Were the royals’ wide-brimmed hats at Ascot a silent tribute to the late Queen?

As milliner to the stars, naturally Stephen Jones OBE was at Royal Ascot last week, spotting his creations of every size, shape and colour on scores of heads. Yet one absence was deeply felt.

‘For most of us, it was the first Royal Ascot without Her Majesty the Queen,’ says Stephen, 66. 

‘But she was there in the millinery. The reason the hat business exists so strongly in Britain and people around the world think of hats as British is because of the Queen — and the Queen is the reason people are still wearing hats in 2023 in tribute to her and what she gave to us over the years.

‘She’s the patron saint of British millinery. Remember, the symbol of monarchy is the crown. It’s not the royal shoe.’

Naturally, the Royal Family was out in force, displaying a whole range of headpieces from Queen Camilla’s asymmetrical pale green creation with feathered trim to the Princess of Wales’s scarlet wide brim hat with blooming flower detail and Zara Tindall’s jaunty teal saucer.

Stephen has created hats for Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, as well as making Pippa Middleton’s ethereal wedding veil, but he’s never worked for Camilla, and has only designed one beret for Kate, for the 2012 Epsom Derby. 

‘[Camilla and Kate] are very loyal to other [milliners],’ he smiles, sitting in his airy, pastel-coloured shop-cum-studio in Covent Garden, surrounded by gorgeous confections.

He’s also — sometimes privately, sometimes in his capacity as milliner to the House of Dior, a post he’s held since 1996 — made several hats for the Duchess of Sussex.

While Dior recently denied that Meghan is to become a brand ambassador, Stephen won’t be drawn on the topic, only saying with typical diplomacy that he found her ‘charming, elegant, generous and a great hat wearer’.

His greatest royal client was Princess Diana, for whom he started working in 1981, when he was just 23.

‘Diana was great. [Designer] Jasper Conran introduced me to her. She’d just married Charles and was the most famous person in the world.

‘We walked into the room at St James’s Palace with our boxes of hats and she was the only person in there. I was completely awestruck. My face was bright pink but she was charming.

‘Later, during fittings, she’d be listening to Wham Rap! on her Walkman.’

Kate, Princess of Wales, wore a wide-brimmed hat with blooming flower detail in the same shade of scarlet as her Alexander McQueen dress for day four of Ascot 

Within a few years, fittings often took place while Diana simultaneously tried to wrangle Princes Harry and William. 

‘They’d be running around, fascinated by what Mummy was doing with these strange things on her head. 

‘It wasn’t as if Diana had fleets of nannies, they’d be picking up rows of veiling and seeing it unroll.’

Did Stephen have to reprimand the two royal toddlers? ‘Diana said: “Stop that!”’ he grins. 

With his enquiring eyes, amused expression and gentle voice, you can see why all Stephen’s clients love him: he’s fun, curious and appears relaxed, even though, with the English season, weddings, plus upcoming fashion shows in Paris, this is his busiest time of year.

He’s worked, it seems, with pretty much everyone, including Grace Jones, Madonna, Lady Gaga and Rihanna. ‘I’m a sort of an Uncle Stephen figure to Rihanna,’ he says. 

Another client is former Prime Minister David Cameron’s wife Samantha, who was criticised for not wearing a hat to the wedding of the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

‘At that time, she didn’t feel comfortable with hats. I went to Number 10 and took 20 or 30 hats and we had a big trying-on session. Then she relaxed about them more or less.’

Zara Tindall paired her navy dress with a jaunty saucer-shaped hat in teal to attend the second day of Ascot this year

‘Follicly challenged’ Stephen always wears a hat, often a beret, outdoors and is a big name in men’s hats, too, with plenty of celebrity male clients, including his friend Mick Jagger, who often wears his hats on stage. ‘He really knows how to use hats.’

Stephen grew up in the Wirral, the son of an engineer father and a housewife mother, who dragged him to art exhibitions (‘I’ve inherited a bit of both, because what I do is a sort of engineering’).

Stephen attended his father’s old boarding school in Liverpool then won a place to study fashion at the prestigious St Martin’s College in London, but while there did an internship at the Mayfair couture house Lachasse.

‘Next to the tailoring workroom was the millinery workroom and I had a bit of a eureka moment: millinery just seemed much more fun, structuring something, without yards of fabric you had to cut.’

On graduating, he became part of the coolest gang in town, the Blitz Kids who, in outrageous outfits, hung out in the late 1970s at the eponymous nightclub yards from where his shop is now.

The group included the late Steve Strange, Sade and Spandau Ballet and spawned the New Romantic fashion trend. 

Another friend (and early wearer of his hats) was Boy George. ‘I remember George being in the back of my minivan singing. 

I said: “You’ve got such a beautiful voice. George, you should be a singer.” He said: “I’d love to be, but I’m not sure I’ve got the confidence.” ’

As well as being Princess Diana’s favourite milliner, Stephen Jones OBE has created hats for superstars including Grace Jones, Madonna, Lady Gaga and Rihanna

Stephen raises a wry eyebrow. ‘How things have changed.’

Stephen’s so unassuming, you forget he spends most of his life flying around the globe to catwalk shows and clients — he’s jetted to Hollywood for Joan Collins and was recently in Mexico City for the Dior Cruise Show.

So can he advise how best to pack a hat — something that troubles me every summer holiday. 

‘Put it in a rigid suitcase!’ he instructs. ‘Fill the crown with anything small, underwear, scarves. Put the brim flat along the bottom and pack round it, so it doesn’t get squashed.’

And if, highly likely, I still manage to crush it? ‘On arrival, take a bottle of champagne out of the minibar, because champagne bottles are heavier. Place the hat on top of the bottle, fluff out the crown and just leave it there overnight. 

‘In the morning the creases will probably have dropped out, especially in a humid climate.

‘Or put the bottle in the bathroom and have a shower; the moisture in the air will seep into it. Twelve hours later it will be fine. But do not take an iron to it. ’

Other tips include removing dirty marks with a squashed piece of white bread or baby wipes (never harsh dry-cleaning fluid).

It’s fabulous to hear such practicality from someone in such an (often) pretentious business.

‘Oh, I’m completely normal!’ Stephen exclaims. He’s been married for nine years (and together for 34 years) to Craig West, who runs his soft-hat workshop, and they live in Battersea, South London.

Do they talk shop continually? ‘No, we talk about friends and family. He’s the reason I can escape from work, otherwise it’s all-encompassing.’

Stephen’s certainly more approachable than some of the flamboyant designers he’s collaborated with for their catwalk shows, including John Galliano and the late, eccentric Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld. ‘I found Karl intimidating but he was always charming.’

Another friend and collaborator was Dame Vivienne Westwood, who died last year. ‘Some people called her Queen Vivienne: I made a Harris tweed crown for her in 1985. She was a force of nature.

‘Now, everybody talks about her activism but I remember her as an extraordinary designer. 

‘At her memorial service everybody was saying, “Vivienne highlighted climate change” and then Helena Bonham Carter got up and said, “Actually, no, it was all about the clothes”. It was refreshing.’

Stephen is far from earnest or self-important. ‘Life can be very serious. Sometimes we need cheering up with a sugar pill,’ he says, with his mischievous grin. 

‘I love the fact fashion can mean nothing. It can mean everything but it can just be something to make you feel great on a fun night out. I’m not trying to change the world with a hat. It’s just a hat.’

• stephenjonesmillinery.com