Philip Treacy describes his style as ‘modern millinery with a British influence, aimed at an international clientele’. A graduate of the Royal College of Art’s millinery course (founded in 1988), he began his career as one of a new generation of innovative, art school trained designers who, during the 1980s, revitalised the British hatmaking industry by reworking traditional hat shapes and materials. Treacy designs occasion and daywear hats for established fashion houses, such as Chanel, as well as for his own couture and diffusion ranges. His most flamboyant creations are popular with women attending ‘Ladies’ Day’ at Royal Ascot, the world's most famous race meeting, where extravagant millinery is as much a part of the occasion as the horseracing.

Pop singer Kylie Minogue modelled this hat for the cover of Tatler magazine in July 1995. Milliners have traditionally used feathers to trim and decorate hats. Here Treacy plays with this idea, cleverly manipulating the shocking pink goose feathers so that they make up the hat’s entire structure.