The Mad Hatter of the British Empire: How Philip Tracy brought the fashion back to hats

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In December this year in St. Petersburg, in the Erarta Museum, an exhibition of Philip Tracy, the world famous "mad hatter", is taking place. The hatter profession seems like something from the nineteenth century, but Philip Tracy disagrees. "As long as people have a head on their shoulders, there will always be hats!" he says. A favorite of stars and royalty, an avant-garde artist, he creates something incredible - and thousands of women (and men!) Dream of his masterpieces.

Tracy is Irish. He started making hats back in 1985, during his university years. His classmates laughed at him: “Why are you so addicted to hats? They are only worn by old women. " But Tracy was adamant, as if he foresaw his coming success. Later he studied with another "hat genius" - Stephen Jones. At the same time, Tracy met Isabella Blow, one of the most influential women in British fashion. She served as editor of several glossy magazines, opened the world to Alexander McQueen, Sophie Dahl, Stella Tennant … and Philip Tracy. He made an eccentric wedding hat for her that looked like a medieval knight's helmet, and Blow could not resist. She offered the young talent housing and patronage. Tracy was still studying hat making at the Royal College of Art, and rumors of him spread rapidly throughout the UK and beyond.

Tracy was only twenty-three when he started creating hats for Chanel. A couple of years later, Naomi Camplebb and Christy Turlington were walking on the catwalk in his hats … He actively collaborated with Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld, Ralph Lauren and Donna Karen. And at twenty-six he had already opened his own boutique - it was only a matter of time. Today he is a five-time Designer of the Year, countless fashion awards and a true legend. True, he himself still cannot believe that he made hats for designers, whom he admired as a student.

Tracy masterfully combines familiar materials with experimental ones, and the forms he creates violate the laws of physics. Fabric and feathers, fur and metal, plastic, plants and … electrical appliances - there are no restrictions for the "mad hatter". Those who were lucky enough to get into the holy of holies - his workshop - from the doorway begin to look for equipment, but … it is not. Tracy doesn't use sewing machines. He creates all his masterpieces by hand. “I feel naked without a thimble on my finger,” he admits.

Now, of course, he has a lot of highly qualified employees and employees (in general, Tracy prefers to work with women), but he performs many tasks on his own. The hat begins with a drawing, then the maestro creates a prototype, and then the long and careful process of creating a masterpiece begins, which is based on centuries-old traditions of the craft. And in this magic ritual there is no place for the latest computer technology. According to Tracy, the most powerful computer cannot calculate the correct feather balance or curl composition. Today he is starting to master 3D printing, but the results of experiments do not please him. But he loves social networks, he actively maintains his accounts and puts likes. After all, even if you have absolutely nowhere to go in a spectacular hat (especially because mass events in 2020 were banned), you can always “go” in it on Instagram! The fact that Tracy's work is closer to magic than to engineering is evidenced by the "participation" of his hats in the favorite movie saga of millennials - the story of Harry Potter.

Philip Tracy never makes recommendations, either generalized or specific. The main thing is the self-awareness of the person who put on his hat. Neither gender, nor race, nor age, nor social status is important. Tracy creates simple baseball caps and real architectural designs, his hats are worn by men and women, queens and teenagers …

Not surprisingly, Lady Gaga is a big fan of Tracy's work. And also - Sarah-Jessica Parker, Madonna … However, the royal family of Great Britain did not do without his services. The extravagant hatter got a difficult order - to come up with a headdress for Elizabeth II that meets all the strict requirements of the protocol. And he succeeded in creating the perfect pastel-colored pill-hat. Who knows what effort it took him to curb his imagination! And then he had a chance to crown all the young ladies at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with hats, including the bride herself.

And, of course, Philip Tracy's main fashion show takes place not on the catwalk, but at the royal races in Ascot, where aristocratic women strive to outdo each other in spectacular headdresses. True, here Tracy sometimes competes with himself. In 2007, Philip Tracy received the Honorary Order of the British Empire from the hands of Prince Charles. The designer does not forget to popularize and promote the skill of creating hats, and is happy to teach young masters. He devotes a lot of time to the activities of the revived British league of hatters The British Hat Guild and dreams of having many young competitors. And thanks to the younger generation, he is calm about the future of the hat craft - both new creators and new fans are appearing.

When the coronavirus epidemic began and many fashion brands were suspended, Tracy worked tirelessly. He and his staff sewed masks for British medical workers, because in difficult times the place of genius is not at all in the sky-high heights among the muses. So someone happened to touch the works of the "mad hatter" without taking off their white robe. In many ways, this sounds sad. But he himself is ready to challenge the pandemic over and over again - and the exhibitions of his works are proof of this. "We all need fun now!" Philip Tracy says emphatically. And in this, perhaps, his main goal is to give people joy. The masterpieces of the maestro will stay in St. Petersburg until spring - and then they will set off to enchant someone else.