Milliner Stephen Jones is ready to dress up the Bowes Museum’s collection in Teesdale, England. On April 26, the renowned British hat maker will begin to stage an intervention by selecting objects at the institution to combine with his sumptuous hats for his upcoming exhibition, “From Georgiana to Boy George,” which runs at the museum from May 19 to September 2.
Fashion designer Giles Deacon, who attended the Barnard Castle School next door to the museum, will contribute an ensemble from his spring/summer 2012 collection, which was influenced by the Bowes Museum’s prized “Silver Swan,” an 18th-century life-sized mechanical musical automaton swan that the Bowes purchased in 1872. Jones designed the fantastical swan-like feathered headpieces that season.
“Deacon said, ‘I’ve got to do a show with you because I used to have my history lessons in the Bowes Museum,’” Joanna Hashagen, the museum’s curator of fashion and textiles, told ARTINFO.
Along with the “Silver Swan”-inspired headpiece, Jones will exhibit approximately 11 pieces from his 31-year career. The sculptural creations were inspired by everything from the Georgian era to the New Romantics of 1980s London.
Jones’s client list includes the late Princess Diana, French first lady Carla Bruni, and pop stars Madonna and Kylie Minogue. He entered the Paris fashion scene in 1984 when he made hats for a collection by couturier Jean Paul Gaultier and has regularly collaborated with designers since then, including Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano, and Marc Jacobs.
When asked how the museum selected Jones, Hashagen said, “He obviously loves working in museums in historic collections, so we asked him.”
The exhibition follows a 2009 show at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, “Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones,” where the designer curated a selection of hats he found inspiring from the V&A’s collection.
Click on the slide show to see highlights of “From Georgiana to Boy George,” on view at the Bowes Museum from May 19 to September 2.