Who? Irish designer Philip Treacy, 37, is a household name in contemporary millinery. His first creation after graduation - the acclaimed twisted bird cage for Chanel - was worn on the cover of British Vogue by supermodel Linda Evangelista. His designs are a favourite among supermodels, church-goers and ladies who attend Ascot.
How did it happen? Treacy has come a long way from making hats and dresses for his sister's dolls at the age of five in a tiny village in Ireland. He studied fashion at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin before winning a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art in London in 1988. While studying he took one of his hats to Michael Roberts, fashion director of Tatler magazine, and met style editor Isabella Blow who later became his mentor, muse and most committed customer. She invited him to set up a workshop in the basement of her London home
after he graduated in 1990 with first-class honours.
In 1991, aged 23, he was summoned to Paris by Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld and ended up designing hats for the fashion house for the next 10 years. In the same year, he won his first British Fashion Council award as British Accessory Designer of the year. He now has five.
In 1992 he started designing more affordable hats for high-street fashion chain Debenhams.
Having woken up the moribund headwear establishment, it came as no surprise when supermodels Naomi Campbell, Yasmin Le Bon, Kate Moss, Stella Tennant and Christy Turlington donned his attire during London Fashion Week in 1993 in return for free hats.
