‘Princess Diana wearing my hat got me noticed’

Stephen Jones OBE, 65, is a milliner who found fame in 1980 designing hats for the rich and famous. He has created hats for the catwalk shows of fashion designers such as John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier and Vivienne Westwood. Today he lives in Battersea, London, with his husband Greg.

How did your childhood influence your attitude to money?

I remember Cubs and Scouts had bob-a-job and that was the system in our house: we earned our pocket money. I had two older sisters; either you fed the dog, set the dinner table or helped Mummy do the washing up. She was a housewife, as it was called then; my father was an engineer.

The idea of holding down a job and that things weren’t free was instilled in us from the word go. I grew up on the Wirral Peninsula in a seaside town. From my bedroom you could see both the lights of Liverpool and the Welsh mountains, and our house was on a sand dune my great-great-grandfather had built many houses on. It was good, but I wanted to go to Liverpool then London: bright lights, big city.

What were your first jobs?

At 16, after moving to Berkshire, I worked for Dynatron selling genteel hi-fi radiograms in “Queen Anne” cabinets to distributors, and in winter did a postman’s round. I filled my GPO bicycle basket with Christmas cards and rode to deliver to all our neighbours.

One day police cars hurtled round the corner and stopped me. A letter for Weir House had been delivered to Weir Cottage where an older couple lived. She’d brought in the post; he sat reading The Telegraph and saw on the front page that certain people had been sent letter-bombs by the IRA. I’d delivered a letter-bomb – even folded the “anglers catalogue” in half to get it through their letter-box! It was meant for an MP that lived next door and had been wrongly addressed.

The first hat you designed?

An old blouse of my sister’s glued onto a cereal packet with plastic roses on the side. That’s how I went from the tailoring to the millinery workroom and had my eureka moment that I might enjoy making hats: less confusing than dresses.

Have you invested in property?

Only the house I live in: I only bought one 20 years ago. I spend a third of my life in France, and in Paris very few people own their own property; they rent. It’s not the great motivator it is in Britain.

Have you saved for your retirement?

Yes I have money stashed away but I’m not sure I’ll ever completely retire. When they’re throwing dirt on top of me I’ll be making a bloody hat.

Have you done lucrative adverts?

In the late 80s I was the face of Croft Original Sherry. I have a glass of sherry balanced on my head and they paid me about £4,000 (£9,000 today).

Have you been ripped off?

Yes, quite often company-wise by people who didn’t pay their bills. There were many fashion shops such as Barneys, a big store in America that went bust. It still goes on; and sometimes when travelling.

Because of the football in Paris (Champions League final) a hotel whose normal price was €350 a night quoted me €1,400 so we found somewhere else for €350. Everybody’s trying to make up what they lost during the pandemic, but they’re not offering the service. Airlines are overcharging as well, all desperate to make money back, their investors wanting to recoup their losses. But it’s like insurance: if you go for something cheaper, is it more likely your flight will be cancelled? Unfortunately I always seem to have to travel on the most expensive day.

What’s the hardest lesson you’ve learned about money?

Sometimes it’s there; sometimes it isn’t.

Have you been bankrupt or in debt?

Once I couldn’t pay the wages. I was borrowing money on my American Express card to pay my staff and had to go to the bank manager, who cut it up in front of me. I paid it back in the end. To live within your means sounds old-fashioned but I’ve been lucky that I’ve always more or less been able to live within my means. With dressmaking you’re buying many metres of fabric a few times a year; with millinery you’re not.

Have you gambled?

No, apart from horseracing at Royal Ascot, where I’ll gamble maybe £100 per race. Over the years I’m slightly behind, but you come out ahead for the fun you’ve had.

Is there anyone famous who hasn’t worn one of your hats?

The late Queen. I curated an exhibition at the V&A called Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones in 2009. The hat I requested from her was a headscarf because I love photographs of the Queen at Balmoral wearing a scarf and walking her dogs. I requested a hat of the Queen Mother’s as well, for which the Queen chose the hat she’d worn on her 100th birthday.

How did your business take off so quickly in 1980?

I was the hot young thing around town. Steve Strange ran the Blitz club in Covent Garden; he was in a band (Visage) so the record label footed the bill for him to buy hats from me. He had a day job working in the shop PX in Endell Street and knew they were moving into a new space. He introduced me to the owners and said, “Could Stephen Jones have a little hat shop?” It was successful from day one.

It was an unbelievable deal: I just had to pay a percentage of, I don’t know if it was, profits or turnover. I didn’t pay rent. They were happy for me to be there because it would pull customers into their shop as well. I didn’t have to market my hats to well-known people; they came to me and, touch wood, luckily still do. One person that got me noticed was Diana, Princess of Wales.

Do you design spectacular hats for film and music stars?

Movie stars don’t want something extravagant because their face is the star, not what they’re wearing. But for performers like Cardi B or Rihanna or Mick Jagger the hat can make you more visible. Mick would buy a top hat for Sympathy for the Devil. He’s had different hats for it since 1968; the first I made for him was 15 years ago.

How do you price your hats?

We don’t really make a hat for less than, say, £350-400 retail because it’s made in England by hand and I pay maternity pay and holiday pay and the people in my workroom work for a living in London. If somebody came into my shop concerned about the prices, you could say, “Well, how much a day would you work for?”

Our prices go up to about £3,500-4,000. The most I’ve ever charged for a hat is probably £20,000. If it’s a wealthy client, it’s cheaper than the landing fees at Heathrow.

Stephen Jones Millinery's Spring/Summer 2023 collection 'El Morocco' will be available from his Covent Garden store from February 14