A series of uncanny coincidences made our collaboration with Stephen Jones seem inevitable. When he first heard the name of our hairspray, he asked brightly, “Did you know that modiste is French for hatmaker?” He has worked backstage with the legendary hairdresser Alexandre de Paris (a rare feather to have in one’s cap), which thrilled us, as Alexandre is one of our heroes and creative muses. And, like Bumble and bumble, Stephen is a passionate historian of his craft.

Stephen’s wildly creative headwear helped bring the Spray de Mode campaign to life. He began making hats when he was an apprentice at a “very grand, old-fashioned haute couture house.” Though trained in the highly technical methods of traditional millinery, Stephen didn’t take long to bring his radical style to the craft. Often working with the most exquisite of materials, he’ll make a hat out of anything – quite literally. “I’m always thinking, yes, this is a hat. This conversation could be a hat. That bit of tissue paper over there can be a hat…hats are so much about references, a bit of this and a bit of that.”

For nearly three decades Stephen Jones has designed outrageous hats for couture fashion houses (think Galliano, Fall 2007), refined pieces for royalty, and his immense collection demonstrates his understanding of the current craving for personal expression.

“Today, people are prepared to spend money on things which have got a real unique creativity, a real individuality...and I think that’s how people want to look.”

Stephen is accustomed to weeks of elaborate preparation for runway shows, but this shoot required particularly close collaboration (and improvisation) with our hairdressers. “The huge creative part of the Bumble shoot…was when I saw that the hair was growing around and through and up and inside the hats…in fact, when I was designing I was thinking all the time, ‘Well, what sort of hairdo is going to fit with this?’” Stephen’s versatility made him a brilliant partner in imagining our cast of characters. “It was different because these hairdos were happening in real time, so the stages of creation were different. Sabrina would just take a hairdo and just tweak it.” As Stephen worked his hats into the hairdos, the characters were transformed.

Our collaboration yielded an integrated effect, like a well-considered outfit; you don’t just see hats, you don’t just see hair; you see great portraits of personal style. “When you design a hat, you’re really designing a personality, you’re designing a character,” Stephen explained. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

stephenjonesmillinery.com