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Carrie Chan

An insider's guide to your favourite fashion brands

How it began:

Philip Treacy was born in  County Galway,  Ireland, in 1967 and grew up  near the village church where he would  watch weddings, which he later described as 'fashion shows'.  At the age of five he began sewing, creating dresses and hats for his sister's dolls.

In 1985, Treacy moved to Dublin to study fashion at the National College of Art & Design. He started creating hats to match his clothing designs   and eventually decided to  spend six weeks  as an apprentice with milliner Stephen Jones.

In 1989, he brought one of his hats to Michael Roberts, then fashion director of Tatler, and his style editor, Isabella Blow.  A few weeks later,  Blow  commissioned him to make a hat for her wedding. Instead of using traditional materials  such as  tulle, veiling and pearls,  Treacy stiffened lace into the shape  of a medieval headdress.  This marked the beginning of a long creative collaboration.

He met Karl Lagerfeld in 1991 and began a 10-year collaboration with  Chanel,  designing hats   such as a twisted birdcage, photographed by Patrick Demarchelier and worn on  the cover of British Vogue by  Linda Evangelista.  In 1991,  Treacy won his first British Fashion Council award as British accessory designer of the year.

In 1993, he staged his first fashion show - with all-black  hats -  at Harvey Nichols  during London Fashion Week. A year later, Treacy  opened his own  boutique at 69 Elizabeth Street, London, later launching  an accessories collection of stingray bags and gloves, geometric and lace-cut leather. In 2000,  he  showed  his orchid collection, the first  haute couture show in Paris devoted to hats.

He ventured into other disciplines, applying his sculptural forms as a medium for other objects, such as glasswear and furniture.  In 2004, he was  named international designer of the  year  at the China Fashion Awards in Shanghai.

Treacy has also taken part  in art exhibitions and wrote a book, When Philip met Isabella, dedicated to  friendship with Blow.

In April, Treacy was granted an honorary doctorate by the National University of Ireland.

The look?

The Occasion label is the core of the collection,  with   hats adorned with ostrich plumes, sequins  and Swarovski crystals.  For this season, the colours and patterns are psychedelic,  with zoomorphic shapes  and a woodland feather theme.  It also features  rich  fabrics,  such as soft Italian  tweed, cashmere and  woven  lamb angora. The streetwear collection   includes a fusion of urban and traditional designs.

Who wears them?

Boy George and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, when  she married Prince Charles.

Defining fashion moment?

For his first show in 1993,  Naomi Campbell, Yasmin Le Bon and Kate Moss and others  modelled   in exchange for hats.

Fun fact:

As a child,  Treacy wasn't allowed to play with his mother's sewing machine   so he'd use it while she was out feeding the chickens.

Where can I get them?

Both  hat lines and handbags  are available at On Pedder,  G/F Wheelock House, Central,  tel: 2118 3489; and Lane Crawford, IFC Mall, Central, tel: 2118 3388.



Philip Treacy