Stephen Jones Paints a Rainbow

The legendary British milliner turns sunrise, noon and dusk into hats for Spring Summer 2026

Stephen Jones OBE grew up in Cheshire, then Liverpool, far from fashion‘s usual epicenters. London called him anyway. He arrived in the mid-1970s to study at Central Saint Martins, the only man in his year. By day, he learned the discipline of tailoring under couturier Peter Lewis Crown. By night, he threw himself headfirst into London’s exploding street style scene, soaking up everything the city had to offer. His first real break came in 1979, a line of hats for Fiorucci. It was just the beginning. Soon, he’d be building a name entirely his own.

That name grew fast at the Blitz nightclub, the beating heart of London’s New Romantic scene. In 1980, club owner Steve Strange backed his first salon, tucked into the basement of Covent Garden boutique PX. Two years later, Diana, Princess of Wales, was already among his clients, drawn in by hats that felt playful rather than formal.

Dior as artistic director

From there, the biggest names in fashion followed. Jones worked with Vivienne Westwood, Claude Montana, Rei Kawakubo, and Thierry Mugler through the 1980s and 90s. Then, in 1996, John Galliano brought him to Dior as artistic director, making Jones the house’s first British milliner. He still collaborates with Dior today, across several creative directors since, including Maria Grazia Chiuri. His hats have marked runway history along the way, including Galliano’s Maison Margiela Haute Couture show beneath the Pont Alexandre III. In 2024, the Palais Galliera in Paris honored his career with a retrospective, “Chapeaux d’Artiste,” tracing four decades through 200 hats. His accolades stack up just as high: an OBE in 2010, an Outstanding Achievement Award in 2008, and British Accessories Designer of the Year in December 2024.

A Rainbow in Curved Air: Built from Memory and Music

For Spring Summer 2026, Stephen Jones presents “A Rainbow in Curved Air.” The name borrows from Terry Riley’s 1969 psychedelic album, a record Jones has carried with him for decades. He also drew from “Colour,” an exhibition at Brighton’s Royal Pavilion. Both threads pulled him toward one question: what does a day actually look like, in color? So he split the collection into three chapters, one for each light of the day.

Noon peaks bright. A gleaming sun becomes a rhinestone-studded crown, catching the light like real sunshine. Elsewhere, sculpted straw curves like a racing car’s wing, and Jones’s own signature top hat climbs into a silk rose pergola, wrapped in a florist’s polka-dot bow.

Dusk, for Stephen Jones, closes the day in shadow and shine, with a chiffon scarf scattered in sparkling zodiac stars beside a rising crescent moon tiara. For evening, a tiara frames the face in topaz beads, and an iris flower built from stiffened chiffon and tulle cascades down in shades of amethyst.

The Miss Jones and JonesBoy lines follow their own version of that rainbow, from morning straw berets with glistening piping to sun hats shaded in tulle, boaters trimmed for spring weddings, and ruby crystallized berets built for dancing at dusk. This season, artist Khalid Benkaroum joins in too, contributing an abstract, multicolored print across the JonesBoy caps and hats. Every piece, across every hour, keeps building that same “Rainbow in Curved Air.”

---