Inside Philip Treacy’s World: See Photos From the Milliner’s New Book

By now you’ve heard of Philip Treacy, the British milliner who has designed hats for everyone from Lady Gaga to Queen Elizabeth. (Remember the infamous door-knocker worn by Princess Beatrice to the royal wedding?) Over the years, Treacy has created hats to accompany numerous designer collections, including Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld, and Valentino—but one of his longest collaborations has, until now, been little known. His work with Kevin Davies, a talented photographer and longtime friend, is captured for the first time with a new book, Philip Treacy, out from Phaidon this month. Davies first met Treacy on a shoot for Vogue in 1991 at the house of Treacy muse Isabella Blow—and has photographed him at his many London studios since. There are photos of his 1998 shoot with Grace Jones, alongside intimate moments with Naomi Campbell, Daphne Guinness, and Issy Blow. One section is dedicated to “Fashion in Motion,” Treacy’s monthly catwalk show at the Victoria & Albert Museum, in which models circumambulated the galleries wearing his most architectural hats. The book culminates with Treacy’s work designing hats for the royal wedding in 2011. Of the occasion, Treacy writes: “[It] was one of the most exciting periods of my career. The whole build-up was like working towards a single, monumental live show. The event itself felt like one of the biggest fashion shows on the planet, except it was all real. It reminded people all over the world that hats have always been, and still remain, an important part of our great historical occasions.”