Irish milliner Philip Treacy on the craft of millinery, Boy George and the power of fashion

Iconic Irish milliner Philip Treacy visited Ireland last weekend alongside his friend and muse Boy George, where he spoke to IMAGE about how, without Boy George’s influence, he might never have become a hat maker at all. The two men were at the Newbridge Silverware Museum of Style Icons to launch an exhibition of the pop singer’s outfits, including that iconic Karma Chameleon two-piece, before they go for auction at Julien’s Auctions in LA this summer.

“Growing up in the west of Ireland, I got my inspiration from Top of the Pops – that half an hour on a Thursday evening was inspiring, thrilling and exciting. When you’re a teenager, you obsess about different pop people or music… I love music; it’s the key to everything. I get to work with some of the most incredible artists in the world, which is really exciting and inspiring,” says the renowned milliner who has collaborated with stars including Grace Jones, Lady Gaga and Madonna.

“I was completely obsessed with George and he inspired me when I was very young. I was inspired by his originality, his fearlessness and his music, by his beautiful soul voice, his point of difference and his likeability factor, which millions of other people loved too,” says Treacy of his friend of many decades. “George was the only person I ever wanted to meet, ever. I read everything about him and my sister would send me articles about him. When I was 18, she sent me an article about the people of the Blitz club and in the corner was an article about Stephen Jones. When I was 18, I knocked on his door and asked him if I could do work experience with him – one of the reasons for that was that I might meet Boy George,” he says. “I’m not sure I would have been a hat designer without Boy George. I was really inspired by him; he was the most magical of all those pop stars in the 1980s, when pop stars were better and more original and had better music. I’ve spent many years trying to explain this to him and his eyes would glaze over – he didn’t understand it completely but it’s true!” he laughs.

When we speak, Treacy is en route to the airport to catch a flight to New York. The reason for the trip becomes clear when Madonna appears at the Met Gala wearing Treacy’s 1998 Ship Hat as part of a look inspired by The Temptations of Saint Anthony Fragment II by the artist Leonora Carrington. This particular hat was originally designed for fashion editor Isabella Blow, Treacy’s erstwhile friend, mentor and muse.

“Isabella is still very alive in my mind and she still inspires me every day. We were partners in crime – she was an aristocratic punk and completely fearless. She would take me to a party and stand me in front of Karl Lagerfeld and say, ‘This is Philip and he makes beautiful things,’ like she was doing Karl a favour. In fact, she was doing me a favour but she didn’t really see it like that; she had her own perspective on things.”

Blow famously discovered Lee Alexander McQueen too and promoted his talents, buying, according to fashion lore, his entire graduate collection for £5,000, which she paid off in £100 instalments. Treacy and McQueen would later collaborate too on collections, including McQueen’s Givenchy SS97 haute couture collection, his own The Widows of Culloden AW06 collection and his AW08 collection, Sarabande.

“Isabella looked after me and Alexander McQueen, she looked out for us and was our ally, our support system, our everything really, so it’s a weird place to be in the middle of their myth and I’m still alive,” says Treacy. “Their myth has evolved – they’ve become the sort of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean of fashion. But I don’t see them like that – I don’t see them as tragic, depressive people – I see them as triumphant.”

Isabella Blow’s long-reaching impact on the world of fashion is undeniable, yet her genius was not always recognised at the time, says Treacy. “There are lots of Isabellas these days. Fashion is about change. When I met Isabella first, she didn’t get the reaction that people think she got; in fact, people were slightly irritated by her appearance and gave off the energy of ‘who does she think she is?’” he says. “Isabella evolved in a moment when everyone else in her office was in a navy suit and pearls, including the girls, and she didn’t look like that. I’ve always been attracted to interesting, fearless people. George is fearless – it’s difficult to be the originator in the beginning.”

Music and musical artists such as Boy George are constant sources of inspiration for the Galway-born milliner who has also designed hats for stars such as Katy Perry, Dita von Teese and Sarah Jessica Parker. “Music makes the world go round – it’s our friend, it’s the soundtrack to our lives – you can play with your emotions with a song,” he says. “Music has always been a big inspiration to me as well as musical artists. I’ve always been interested in dressing the artist because I’m impressed when someone opens their mouth and something unbelievable comes out. That must be the greatest gift of all. My hats are just the cherry on top.”

Despite the undeniable artistry involved in his creations, Treacy is keen to eschew the title of artist: “I’m not trying to make art, I’m trying to make a hat. If somebody perceives it as artistic, then that’s their perception. I’m not trying to be an artist – it’s really for other people to say that about your work, it’s not really for you because that can make you sound like an asshole.” He prefers the term “craftsman” and is keen to stress the importance of the craft in what he does. “I am a craftsman. I work with craft. I work with the old-fashioned way of doing things. I am a maker. I don’t choose and get someone else to make – I make from scratch. Craft is everything – hat making is newly on the endangered craft list.”

In Ireland for the opening of the Chameleon of Style exhibition, I ask Treacy whether he returns often to Ireland. “I work a lot and the kind of work I do takes a very long time. It’s a very complex craft, so that means I spend a lot of time producing the end result – it doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a labour-intensive, time-consuming craft done in the traditional way with no machinery, just our fingers, so it takes a long time. I just work, but I have very interesting work, so it keeps me inspired. The work is too interesting to stop.”

While always forward-looking, he is sceptical about the impact of AI on a brand or a process such as his. “The minute AI can make a hat, I want to work with it, but AI can’t make a hat. I am interested in anything that reeks of the future and always have been, but it’s impossible to replicate what is in somebody’s mind,” he says. “What I make is about how I handle the materials. The human touch on a piece is what makes it what it is – without that, it is merely an object. I have worked with 3-D printing; it was interesting, but it has a coldness that a handmade piece doesn’t have.”

We speak about fast fashion and about how, in a retail ecosystem in which consumers can have whatever they want delivered almost instantly, true luxury is found in anticipation. “I am the opposite of fast fashion – I get up in the morning and I make [a hat] from start to finish. The fashion business has changed; fashion has always been a business but today it is run by conglomerates and they have changed fashion. Luxury doesn’t mean a store on every high street in every city. We have a lot of customers who don’t want that labelled handbag. The new luxury, that I see, is something made specially for you.”

Treacy says that hats are ideas made manifest by the maker – ideas which provoke a response in both the wearer and the viewer. “I start out with a flat piece of material and by the evening it’s a three-dimensional piece that creates an emotion in somebody, so there’s something magical about the transformation of what one’s hands can do. I feel comfortable about the past 36 years because I’ve made all those things myself with help from my assistants. People ask me if I still make the hats. Yes, it’s what I get up at 6.30am every morning to do.”

I ask whether he is surprised by the success of fellow Irish creatives such as Jonathan Anderson, Simone Rocha and Seán McGirr, with whom he recently collaborated on the Alexander McQueen AW25 collection.” I’ve always approached what I do in a global context. It’s a world of possibility, so I never felt hindered by anything; in fact, my Irishness helped me because the Irish are very open, creative and warm people, so it’s only been to my advantage,” he says. “There are lots of very well-known, accomplished Irish actors and people in music and art, so why wouldn’t they be successful?”

Whether working with private clients or with some of the world’s most renowned fashion brands, Treacy says that successful collaboration is key. “Collaboration creates the inspiration. You think in terms of the customer or the brand. A Valentino hat is very different to a Ralph Lauren hat, so you put the personality of the brand into the idea,” he says of working with brands.

When it comes to his private clients, Treacy says that the perfect hat can do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to being in the public eye. “When somebody is wearing something fabulous, they take the energy from that. You send a great star out in something incredible, then everyone’s feeling good – it’s an energy that you’re involved with. If it’s an artist or an entertainer, people want to be wowed, but people have a hat made for all sorts of reasons; everyone has an ultimate moment. You’re helping someone to navigate a social situation and that person can have a fantastic time if they feel good. I see it all the time in our shop – the person looks in the mirror and thinks ‘I look great’, and that’s the winning moment because you’re bringing confidence to that person. How fashion makes you feel is what fashion is about.”

Boy George: Chameleon of Style runs until June 1 at the Newbridge Silverware Museum of Style Icons in Kildare. The collection of key pieces of the cultural trailblazer’s wardrobe forms part of Bold Luxury: Boy George Edit, which will be sold by Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills. The exhibition offers visitors a rare opportunity to view pieces that embody Boy George’s unique legacy before they go to auction. Admission is free of charge, newbridgesilverware.com. Philip Treacy, 69 Elizabeth Street, Belgravia, London, philiptreacy.co.uk.