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Stephen Jones

Born in Cheshire, and schooled in Liverpool, Stephen Jones burst on to the London fashion scene during its explosion of street style in the late seventies. By day, he was a student at St Martins; after dark he was one of that era's uncompromising style-blazers at the legendary Blitz nightclub - always exquisitely dressed, and always crowned with a striking hat of his own idiosyncratic design. Contemporaries hungered for a little of his individuality. And, by 1980, Jones had opened his first millinery salon in the heart of London's Covent Garden. Those premises soon became a place of pilgrimage and patronage, as everyone from rock stars to royalty, from Boy George to Lady Diana, identified Jones as the milliner who would help them make arresting headlines. Jones made millinery seem modern and compelling. In materials that were often radical, and in designs that ranged from refined to whimsical, his exquisitely crafted, quixotic hats encapsulated the fashion mood of the moment. Twenty-five years later, Jones's era-defining edge continues to attract a celebrity clientele which currently includes Marilyn Manson, Pink, Gwen Stefani, Beyonce Knowles and Alison Goldfrapp. Ever playful with scale, Jones created Kylie Minogue's truly spectacular showgirl headdresses - while, for Dita Von Teese, the burlesque super-star, he recently fashioned the tiniest of tricornes. He has designed hats for the Rolling Stones - and for Rei Kawakubo's recent Stones-inspired Comme des Garçons menswear collection. But Kawakubo is only one name in the rollcall of fashion designers with whom Jones has collaborated. From Vivienne Westwood, Claude Montana, Thierry Mugler and Jean-Paul Gaultier throughout the eighties to his current work with John Galliano for Dior, Jones's hats have been an integral component in some of the most memorable runway spectacles of the past quarter century. Today, Jones's retail boutique, design studio and workroom are all located in a charming Georgian townhouse close to the site of his very first millinery salon. In addition to his Model Millinery collection, he designs the widely-distributed Miss Jones and JonesBoy diffusion ranges - plus a JonesGirl accessories line exclusively for Japan. Jones's work is represented in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert museum (London), the Louvre (Paris), The Fashion Institute of Technology and the Brooklyn Museum (both, New York), the Kyoto Costume Institute, and the Australian National Gallery (Canberra). Now, as ever, at the forefront of fashion, his beguiling hats routinely grace the most celebrated magazine covers and enliven window displays of the world's most stylish stores. From runways to race-courses, from pop-promos to royal garden parties, millinery by Stephen Jones adds the exclamation mark to every fashion statement. STEPHEN    JONES     MENU            /             NICKY LONDON COLUMN MENU