Image: Milliner Stephen Jones (photographer: Peter Ashworth)
British milliner extraordinaire Stephen Jones is the winner of the BFC Award for Outstanding Achievement Award in Fashion Design 2008.
Stephen Jones’ creations have graced the heads of some of the world’s most famous faces, as well as appearing on international catwalks, concert stages, cinema screens, and in prestigious museums of the world. He opened his first salon in 1980, a year after graduating from Central Saint Martins, and was soon designing for some of fashion’s most influential designers. As well as collaborating with the world’s top fashion creatives, he has also worked with well known names in film and music. For the past two years, Stephen has been working with the V&A to present ‘Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones', a blockbuster exhibition set to launch during London Fashion Week in February 2009.
Stephen Jones commented:
'I am delighted and honoured to receive the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Design. Hats and I have had an extraordinary adventure together for almost thirty years around the world, and it's not over yet.'
The Outstanding Achievement Award celebrates the accomplishments of a designer who has made an impact on the industry internationally throughout their career, and is voted for by a committee of fashion influencers who sit on the British Fashion Council's International Committee.
‘Stephen Jones carries his extraordinary imagination as lightly as his magnificent hats. His collaborations with John Galliano have shown such symbiosis with an exceptional designer and sometimes have even stolen the show. I remember especially the raw, animal hats like living creatures that were shown at Versailles, and the Japanese collection with glorious geishas. But whether it is a couture creation for Dior, a madcap idea for Comme des Garçons or hats for his own line, the Stephen Jones skill is always present. With a deep knowledge of fashion history but a vivid sense of modernity, this is a milliner who is always of the moment. I have worn his hats to weddings. I wore his mini lacquered straw pyramid to Buckingham Palace. And I felt fit to be queen.’
Suzy Menkes, Fashion Editor, International Herald Tribune
'There are only a few people from any given generation in fashion who transform the territory and Stephen is one of those. His work often defies categorisation and surpasses imagination - his hats inhabit that rarefied land where fashion meets art.'
Alexandra Shulman, Editor, VOGUE UK
Acceptance speech
Biography
Video interview
Image gallery