Noel Stewart

Ironically, the slur of ‘wearing a lampshade’ is a phrase that’s all too true for milliner Noel Stewart. His earliest foray into headgear was a college lighting project that became a hat, went to a wedding and garnered more orders for the same. Fast forward 10 years, and his work attracts a more rarefied clientele, from pop princesses Kylie, Beth Ditto and Britney Spears (for whom he created pieces for the current world tour) to a slew of elegant society women, who relish his love of the architectural combined with the flamboyant. “People often draw parallels with sculpture and fashion, but in the case of millinery, it’s a genuine love match,” he says. “What’s incredibly satisfying is creating something with sculptural dynamics that exists on the body – it just comes alive.” His work pays testimony to the above, with feats of engineering that would put a structural engineer to shame, such as a precariously balanced framework of cut and dyed ostrich feathers fashioned with the preciseness of an architectural drawing, or sheer petals of wired net with all the fragility of a skeletal flower. That said, the RCA trained milliner, can knock out a mean trilby too, although it may be executed in a high gloss resin or Perspex. In addition to creating his own work, Stewart frequently collaborates with other designers such as Roksanda Illincic, Hussein Chalayan, and Richard Nicoll for whom he memorably created Amish inspired gauze trilbys with square brims.

For S/S10, inspiration comes from three contrary heroines: Coco Chanel, a glossy Michelle Pfeiffer in the movie Scarface and the British surrealist artist Eileen Agar. Not surprisingly, this weird sisterhood throws up some diverse results. Think Deauville elegance meets hard-edged Eighties glamour - all topped off with a Surrealist seafood garnish.