Stephen Jones’ hats: A party on your head

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

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Summary

After growing up in the north of England British milliner Stephen Jones went on to become a pioneering British hat maker working in Paris. He has been creating avant-garde designs for the last 45 years, inspired by Surrealist art, trailblazing fashions at New Romantic club nights, and cinema. He was friends with pop star Boy George who wore his hats, and he famously created a tweed crown for Vivienne Westwood. Rather than a mere accessory, he aims to transform a hat into a statement of identity, and has collaborated with designers like Jean Paul Gaultier and Dior, helping to revitalise fine hat-making skills inspired by looks from copies of Vogue from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. The prestigious Palais Galliera fashion museum in Paris holds exhibitions every year, showcasing how fashion has evolved from the 18th century to the present day. Its focus is on the most iconic designers and Stephen Jones is one of only two hat makers ever to be included – a huge honour. Rosa Johnston-Flint joins Stephen in Paris as his retrospective is about to close and visits his workshop as he prepares his Spring-Summer 2026 collection for London Fashion Week.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.
0:09.0	The hatmaker Stephen Jones famously made hats for 1980s pop icons like Boy George and royalty like Diana Princess of Wales.
0:23.4	He created a tweed crown for British fashion designer Vivian Westwood. He calls hats a party on your
0:30.2	head. Welcome to the documentary in the studio from the BBC World Service with me, Rosa Johnston Flint,
0:39.9	where we investigate how some of the most creative people work.
0:45.2	Stephen grew up in the northwest of England, the son of an engineer,
0:50.1	and today his hats are seen at the Met Gala in New York and on the runways of Paris,
0:55.9	a city which has embraced him.
0:58.5	He's only the second hatmaker to have an exhibition in his honour
1:02.1	at the prestigious Palais Galliera Fashion Museum,
1:05.1	where I meet him as he's about to put his next collection together.
1:09.9	Somewhere around the world, hats are always having a revival.
1:14.1	But certainly here in France, we've had an extraordinary response to the exhibition.
1:18.6	We've had almost 100,000 visitors.
1:20.9	And everybody leaving has said, hats, hats, let's hats be part of our language again.
1:27.2	A lot of my work in Paris here has been with Christian Dior, and the hats, hats, let's hats be part of our language again.
1:31.0	A lot of my work in Paris here has been with Christian Dior,
1:34.0	and this is a display of Christian Dior hats.
1:37.8	Yeah, so they're all on mannequins that are wearing outfits,
1:41.0	so you really see how the hat interacts with the clothing.
1:42.3	Yeah, absolutely. I started to work with Dior almost 30 years ago now. I first went there with John Galliano, and here we have a display of John Gagliano hats. We're all attracted to Paris. It's all a magnet, whether it's just looking over there, Iris von Herpen, who's Dutch, or Tom Brown, who's American. Which one is that? Is that the red one?
2:01.8	Iris van Herpen is this black one. This is an extraordinary hat. It has a little fan in it.
	...

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