“Royalty is completely different than celebrity. Royalty has a magic all its own.”
― Philip Treacy
“How a hat makes you feel is what a hat is all about.”
― Philip Treacy
“A person carries off the hat. Hats are about emotion. It is all about how it makes you feel.”
― Philip Treacy
“There is no attitude required. The hat brings the attitude. And when people try on a hat they like, it is a bit of fun. It makes them laugh. You don’t laugh when you put on a pair of shoes, but you do with a hat.”
― Philip Treacy
“Everybody loves things that sparkle.”
― Philip Treacy
“Elegance is all in the mind of the wearer.”
― Philip Treacy
“The personality of the wearer and the hat makes the hat.”
― Philip Treacy
“Hats make people feel good, and that’s the point of them.”
― Philip Treacy
“So my advice is to always choose something simpler – an expressive outfit, plus a hat, can be frightening.”
― Philip Treacy
“In Rome, I particularly love the history, churches, sculptures and architecture and the fact that you can walk along a tiny cobbled street and turn the corner to find the Trevi Fountain. London is evocative of other eras and full of history.”
― Philip Treacy
“Hats are radical; only people that wear hats understand that.”
― Philip Treacy
“Not long ago, a hat was a conformist accessory. Then the 1960s came along, and young people didn’t want to wear hats.”
― Philip Treacy
“Somebody can feel elegant without being elegant. It’s a personality.”
― Philip Treacy
“I believe in originality, primarily. However, it’s important to know what there has been before to aim in that direction. Art history informs us. It informs our mind. I like to look at books, exhibitions, paintings, as a computer, subconsciously taking on information.”
― Philip Treacy
“I like hats that make the heart beat faster.”
― Philip Treacy
“People, when they buy a hat, they can’t explain why they want to buy it or why they want it, but they do. It’s like chocolate.”
― Philip Treacy
“The classic hat image was during the Forties and Fifties, and Elizabeth Taylor was the epitome of that; she was the ultimate celebrity of excess and glamour, and she worked major sun hats.”
― Philip Treacy
“Try on 100 different hats if you can, until you find the one that suits you best. It’s a trial and error thing.”
― Philip Treacy
“Hat-making is laborious and time-consuming. It’s a very tactile medium, and you can develop the skills, but it’s one of those things: you either have it, or you don’t. I love bringing something to fruition with my hands that gives people pleasure.”
― Philip Treacy
“There’s a technicality to designing and wearing hats. A hat is balancing the proportions of your face; it’s like architecture or mathematics.”
― Philip Treacy
“When people think of hats, they think of her majesty the queen.”
― Philip Treacy
“I make hats for lots of iconic people, and that makes my job very interesting.”
― Philip Treacy
“What I love most about Her Majesty is that she has kept hats alive in people’s minds for more than 60 years. You can’t think of her without imagining her with a hat or a crown. I would, of course, love to design one for her.”
― Philip Treacy
“The success of a hat definitely lies with balancing the personality of the wearer with the type of occasion. Don’t listen to those rules about face shape.”
― Philip Treacy
“When people come and visit me and have a hat made, it’s a little bit like visiting a psychiatrist, but they don’t actually realize that.”
― Philip Treacy
“Women come into our shop for that ultimate moment in their life. They’re buying a dream. They’re buying a moment for themselves. That’s what I sell – moments.”
― Philip Treacy
“I remember in the early nineties people saying the hat was just for old women, but that’s ridiculous.”
― Philip Treacy
“I used to make clothes for my sister’s dolls. I couldn’t care less for the dolls, but I could make the clothes really easily.”
― Philip Treacy
“My mother had a sewing machine. I was never allowed to use it, but I was so fascinated by this little needle going up and down joining fabric together that I’d use it when my mother went out to feed the chickens.”
― Philip Treacy
“I was just, as a child, very different from the others, and didn’t really care what they thought because you know, a child doesn’t really have inhibitions; you sort of gain your inhibitions later.”
― Philip Treacy
“America brought us the baseball cap; it’s one of my favorite hats.”
― Philip Treacy
“The only person I never made a hat for was my mother because my mother didn’t really – she preferred to make her own hats. I mean, she was intrigued by everything, but she didn’t want one of my hats. She made her own.”
― Philip Treacy
“I believe that I am a hat designer, not a milliner.”
― Philip Treacy
“I always design the hat with the wearer in mind; otherwise, it’s an inanimate object.”
― Philip Treacy
“Wearing a hat is fun; people have a good time when they’re wearing a hat.”
― Philip Treacy
“At home, I had seven brothers, one sister. I sewed clothes for my sister’s dolls although she was grown and gone away. I was a weirdo but didn’t think I was a weirdo.”
― Philip Treacy
“I love the romance of what I do, although because of Isabella, Lady Gaga and Grace Jones, people think I have crazy customers. Sometimes I get more enthusiasm from the housewife who wants a hat and believes in it.”
― Philip Treacy
“Hats are for life’s ultimate moments. They’re worn at races, at weddings. Occasions many of us, who aren’t royals and celebrities, only attend once or twice in a lifetime.”
― Philip Treacy
“I grew up in a little village in the west of Ireland.”
― Philip Treacy
“Fashion is an illusion. It’s a multibillion-pound industry that has to appear frivolous. Designers work and work and work, all night sometimes.”
― Philip Treacy
“Hats are attached to special moments in people’s lives – weddings, or the races. In difficult times, people still get married; they still want to look their best.”
― Philip Treacy
“Certainly, people like Gaga have introduced a new type of hat-wearing.”
― Philip Treacy
“People are dressing like stars, which is kind of fantastic.”
― Philip Treacy
“I believe in a democratic approach to fashion: if you feel good, then great. You may not look good, but it’s not the problem.”
― Philip Treacy
“When you meet someone, you meet their face. It’s the most potent part of the body to embellish.”
― Philip Treacy
“Fantasy hats give you the possibility to dream.”
― Philip Treacy
“I want to excite the eye through hatmaking.”
― Philip Treacy
“I do say I’m a specialist in divas. Name a diva – I’ve worked with ’em.”
― Philip Treacy
“I must point out – Sarah Jessica Parker is not a diva – she’s one of these pop culture characters that everybody likes.”
― Philip Treacy
“Every day, I like to make hats that make people dream.”
― Philip Treacy
“Hats are really for ultimate occasions, so when I make one, I try to do something different, something noticeable.”
― Philip Treacy
“When you’re wearing something on your head, you feel beautiful.”
― Philip Treacy
“Gaga is an entertainer, so a hat for her is part of the illusion of entertaining.”
― Philip Treacy
“Often, what makes my job so exciting is designing for the mother whose dream has been to wear one of my hats at her child’s wedding. I feel as responsible for making her feel like a million dollars as I do for somebody in the public eye.”
― Philip Treacy
“I empathise with the fact that people want to look their best. A hat is all about how it makes you feel – it’s so much better than a nip and tuck, and a lot less painful.”
― Philip Treacy
“I love the shape of cars. They are very inspiring as modern pieces of machinery. I can’t drive, but I do like the look of them.”
― Philip Treacy
“I am very proud to be Irish.”
― Philip Treacy
“I’m representative of 21st century Irish design, so I promote Irishness all over the world wherever I go.”
― Philip Treacy
“I grew up in the west of Ireland, and Galway was our local seaside resort. We’d go for one day of the year during the summer, and I have enduring memories of the sand and the sea.”
― Philip Treacy
“I particularly like to travel for work because you see a completely different side of the country you’re visiting.”
― Philip Treacy
“You always see a better side of where you’re visiting when a local shows you around.”
― Philip Treacy
“Shopping can be a nightmare – first finding something to wear and then finding something to go with it, it’s so difficult when there’s so much choice. It can feel like entering a battleground.”
― Philip Treacy
“Hats are the epitome of Englishness, and a royal wedding is the penultimate moment for a hat designer. I’m Irish, but I am a royalist and I believe in fantasy.”
― Philip Treacy
“My aim is to change people’s perceptions of what a hat can look like in the 21st century.”
― Philip Treacy
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