Philip Treacy

“Fantasy hats give you the possibility to dream.”

“There's a technicality to designing and wearing hats. A hat is balancing the proportions of your face; it's like architecture or mathematics.”

“I always design the hat with the wearer in mind; otherwise, it's an inanimate object.”

“I love the shape of cars. They are very inspiring as modern pieces of machinery. I can't drive, but I do like the look of them.”

“Hats are for life's ultimate moments. They're worn at races, at weddings. Occasions many of us, who aren't royals and celebrities, only attend once or twice in a lifetime.”

“You always see a better side of where you're visiting when a local shows you around.”

“When people think of hats, they think of her majesty the queen.”

“The only person I never made a hat for was my mother because my mother didn't really - she preferred to make her own hats. I mean, she was intrigued by everything, but she didn't want one of my hats. She made her own.”

“Hats make people feel good, and that's the point of them.”

“I do say I'm a specialist in divas. Name a diva - I've worked with 'em.”

“Hat-making is laborious and time-consuming. It's a very tactile medium, and you can develop the skills, but it's one of those things: you either have it, or you don't. I love bringing something to fruition with my hands that gives people pleasure.”

“I was just, as a child, very different from the others, and didn't really care what they thought because you know, a child doesn't really have inhibitions; you sort of gain your inhibitions later.”

“I must point out - Sarah Jessica Parker is not a diva - she's one of these pop culture characters that everybody likes.”

“The personality of the wearer and the hat makes the hat.”

“Hats are the epitome of Englishness, and a royal wedding is the penultimate moment for a hat designer. I'm Irish, but I am a royalist and I believe in fantasy.”

“I believe in originality, primarily. However, it's important to know what there has been before to aim in that direction. Art history informs us. It informs our mind. I like to look at books, exhibitions, paintings, as a computer, subconsciously taking on information.”

“What I love most about Her Majesty is that she has kept hats alive in people's minds for more than 60 years. You can't think of her without imagining her with a hat or a crown. I would, of course, love to design one for her.”

“People are dressing like stars, which is kind of fantastic.”

“I make hats for lots of iconic people, and that makes my job very interesting.”

“Royalty is completely different than celebrity. Royalty has a magic all its own.”