Luxury is freedom
Festive Head
by Alessandra Cenna
MUSEE DE LA MODE PALAIS GALLIERA
Paris
from October 19, 2024 to March 16, 2025
STEPHEN JONES
Artist's Hats
Chapeau Little Fishes - S/S 2011 © Simon Procter
For the first time in over 40 years, the Musée de la Mode Palais Galliera is dedicating an exhibition to an accessory, the hat, which has been elected to the status of a true masterpiece.
Stephen Jones, a British designer and great milliner, is the guest of honor at this retrospective, which presents the models designed for his first collections from the 1980s to the present day.
More than 170 headgear, 40 silhouettes and numerous archive documents bear witness to his sources of inspiration, his collaborations and the place that Paris holds in his work.
Born in 1957, not far from Liverpool, he studied at the Saint Martin School of Art and opened his boutique in London in the heart of Covent Garden in 1980, offering two hat collections per year.
Photograph of a model from the Saint Martin’s School of Art graduation collection, worn by Jane Leonard, 1979 © Peter Ashworth
Portrait of Stephen Jones, 2024 © Koto Bolofo
HE was part of the London “New Romantics” movement and met figures from the world of music, notably Boy George.
This is how, little by little, Stephen Jones entered the world of fashion and fashion shows. His hats, so unique, precious and often eccentric, gave him access to haute couture houses and he became the close collaborator of the most famous stylists.
He started with Jean Paul Gaultier for his first Parisian collection in 1985. He then collaborated brilliantly with all the big names from John Galliano to Claude Montana, from Thierry Mugler to Comme des Garçons or Louis Vuitton…
For more than 30 years, he has worked with the house of Dior creating models as magnificent as they are timeless.
Union Jack, S/S 2005 © Peter Ashworth
Sewing, PE 2018 © Peter Ashworth
The exhibition focuses on all his links with French culture and couture, the image of the Parisian woman and the tributes to French couturiers.
Having become the most Frenchy of English milliners, he is now part of the artistic heritage of the world of fashion.
He knows how to create extraordinary pieces, hats, fascinators, headbands, real artistic constructions that the most successful heads compete for internationally.
Hat Bang! A/W 2010-11 © Ben Toms
Gemini, F/W 1990-91 © Peter Ashworth
Cathedral,F/W 1995-96 © Peter Ashworth
Cocteau, S/S 2010 © Peter Ashworth
Fantasy, humor and elegance are the signatures of this hatter crazy about fashion and irreverence, bringing back to honor and taste this accessory considered incompatible with modern life in the routine of its daily life.
Stephen Jones, Artist’s Hats.
Musée de la Mode Palais Galliera
- Paris -
from October 19, 2024 to March 16, 2025
www.palaisgalliera.paris.fr