Heads Up! Hats and Gloves Are Back

Discover the Irish designers creating marvellous hats and gloves …

Vintage-style pillbox hats and ladylike wrist and elbow-length gloves bring a little charm and flair to everyday outfits. Wear them with daywear – skirts and tees, jeans and a blazer, tailored trousers and sweater vests. One way to buy into the trend is to shop secondhand. But if you’re going to invest in something new, Irish design skills in accessories have a certain freewheeling flamboyance and bravado that lend a modern edge to millinery.

PHILIP TREACY’s unstoppable creativity knows no bounds, but there are rising stars at home, many of whom have trained with him, making cool headgear not just for special occasions, but small, perky pillboxes and head-toppers that elevate everyday wear. MARGARET O’CONNOR’s starry crowns highlight her work as a conceptual artist and DJ. She draws inspiration from her native Burren in Co Clare, and her many fans include Kate Moss, Debbie Harry and Lady Gaga. She is the only Irish designer to win global recognition in China and one of her hats has the distinction of being selected for display in the National Gallery of Ireland. Another Treacy protegée, KATIE EARLEY, from Roscommon, graduated from NCAD and completed further training in Sweden. She spent two years with Treacy in London making hats for Ascot, the Royal wedding in 2018 and Valentino couture, before returning home three years ago. Her collections, using upcycled and ethically sourced materials, include cute berets, some embroidered for daywear and others handblocked with white silk bows for weddings. Fortunately, her little felt hats and mini bowlers with net or feather detail suit most face shapes. (Dublin-based FREYA OATWAY, who also interned with Treacy, is known for her signature fedoras and panamas.)

Pillboxes feature in the collections of the self-taught AILISH MC ELROY who draws on her background as a graphic artist, and in the tilted, face-framing numbers from Argentinian-born barrister turned milliner ANA VICTORIA, now based in Galway. Ana works with designer Helen McAlinden to create pieces that work with Helen’s cool, elegant dresses and suits. With her dramatic and always imaginative “pieces of armour”, PAULA ROWAN has made gloves to decorate many a high-profile hand. Her gloves featured in Ridley Scott’s movie The House of Gucci and in Lady Gaga’s 2022 Chromatica world tour. Most recently, her elbow-length, twelve-button Montserrat gloves in white Ethiopian leather were worn by the Princess of Wales at a state banquet at Buckingham Palace. Dublin has recently seen the revival of third-generation master glovers GEORGE HORN, which produces fine hand-sewn gloves in 15 different styles, combining new technology with traditional skills. Elsewhere, ROISÍN GARTLAND, leather specialist and artist, makes fingerless gloves in fine Japanese hide for Stable Of Ireland in the Westbury Mall.

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