Springtime has arrived at Stephen Jones, whose latest collection was abloom with hats inspired by Australia, its multicultural landscape and the many flowers in the country’s Royal Botanical Gardens. During a presentation where he was wearing shades of soft peony and mauve, Jones said he wanted to create “a happy collection, inspired by nature and simply optimistic.”
The milliner has been spending a lot of time in Australia of late. He worked on the hats for Westwood | Kawakubo, the blockbuster exhibition in Melbourne that wrapped last April, and is also busy with an undisclosed, upcoming project there. The country is in his heart: The National Gallery in Canberra was the first museum to acquire Jones’ hats for a public collection in the 1980s.
For spring, Jones may just have outdone Mother Nature with his bright, fantastical creations. They included a hot pink peony hat, exploding with feathers and embellished with tiny black ants — a nod to China’s admiration for the flower, and the insect. A cane-work trellis hat entangled with jasmine vines was inspired by the national flower of the Philippines, while Jones transformed New Zealand’s silver fern into a Perspex tiara with rhinestones.
The milliner’s customers can go green — in every sense — wearing headpieces showcasing the cedar of Lebanon, or the rose of Sharon, a type of hibiscus native to areas of east Asia.
They can showcase the lotus and the mimosa, the latter of which Jones turned into yellow pompoms popping in all directions from the top of the hat. Similarly, he turned Australia’s national flower, the wattle, into an exploding headdress of yellow tulle blossoms.
Jones has been busy this year. In a few weeks he’ll be marking his 30th anniversary working with Dior, and has also been collaborating regularly with the designers at Matières Fécales and lecturing at SCAD in Atlanta and Savannah, sharing his passion for design, and ideas that sprout like wildflowers, with the students.
