Hailed as one of the world’s most influential designers of hats, Philip Treacy flew into Dublin to help out an old college friend raise money for Saint Joseph’s, Shankill, a centre dedicated to dementia care.
Philip opened the 10-designer, 14-model show. His Rapid Protyping 3D printed headpiece (below left) is totally futuristic and a far cry from those early days 40 years ago when Philip made his first hats from feathers in Co Galway.
“It’s interesting to work with new technology, it’s like ‘Star Trek’. You feed all the information into the computer, perfect the shape, and a laser hits a vat of liquid and it starts to appear out of thin air,” he explained.
His €9,300 blue hat has featured in a campaign for Royal Ascot 2016 where new style rules decree that sheer is out and hats must be at least four inches wide.