Editor’s Note: This series was originally published in February 26, 1991 Exhibited in London and has been digitized as part of Vogue Runway’s ongoing effort to document historic fashion shows.
Milliner Philip Treacy loves success out of the box. Before he 26 graduated from the Royal College of Art in London, he was offered an internship with Stephen Jones. Not long after, stylist and fashionista Isabella Blow fell in love with him, and she wore one of his hats to her wedding. “Whimsy is very complex,” she once said of his hats, and it was at Blow’s prompt that Treacy was asked to make them for Chanel at 1991; The commission never stopped.
About a month after making top outfits for Alexander McQueen’s debut at Givenchy’s spring couture show 1997 season, the sought-after Treacy staged his own wild runway show during London’s Autumn 1991 ready-to-wear season. His outing was held at the Hippodrome nightclub in London, among the cast of British roses – Stella Tennant, Honor Fraser, Naomi Campbell, Iris Palmer and Jodie Kidd, among others. They wear the milliner’s whimsical creations, which range from cubist fedoras to enveloping seashells. “Each, as always, is a work of art, sometimes alien, often organic,” noted the Evening Standard at the time.
These wonders are crafted from a variety of materials, man-made and natural, including Tracy’s favorite feathers. “I grew up with chickens and pheasants and geese, so feathers are in my heart,” the milliner told
Vogue in 2013 . “You can create incredible graphic shapes and lines, and that’s what hats are about. They’re all pictures—and I drew them with feathers.”
