Her Majesty’s milliner

She is one of the world’s most famous hat-makers, milliner to the British royal family, and so adored by fashionistas that her headwear can cost around Dh18,000. So when Rachel Trevor-Morgan talks about what to don on your noggin’, she’s well worth listening to.

Right now she’s offering advice to Friday’s women readers about what they might want to wear on their heads to attend the Dubai World Cup. Specifically, in fact, she’s offering advice to anyone who’s thinking of wearing a fascinator.

“Don’t do it,” she says, slightly horrified. “I always think if you’re wearing a hat, you’ve made this bold decision to wear one, so you should go for it. Wear something that really enhances your outfit, not just a patch of material.”

She advises women to go with something bold; to make sure it matches your outfit, your face and your body shape too; and to enjoy it.

“As a society we wear hats less today,” says the 48-year-old, who is in Dubai to launch the new Jacques Vert collection, featuring 15 of her hats, at Debenhams in Mirdif City Centre. “And that’s a shame because they are extraordinary things, very dramatic. If you have a beautiful hat, I think, it enhances your whole persona.”

The trick, of course, is to get it right. So, how do you do that?

Perhaps most important, says Rachel, is to make sure you have an outfit in mind for the piece to go with. Versatile hats can be worn with more than one thing, of course, but they should always look like they were tailor-made to go with the outfit.

“In general if you have a flowery or patterned dress you would want a simple hat,” explains Rachel. “And vice versa.”

By the same token, push style boundaries too. “In this day and age wearing a hat can require a lot of guts,” says Rachel. “So if you do it, be brave and be bold. Dare to experiment. Make it something people will look at. Make it a talking point – for the right reasons, obviously.”

Except here’s the annoying bit: she doesn’t like to talk about that too much. This is a little exasperating because this is really her headline; this is her outstanding fact; this is her hook.

Remember that little green number Her Majesty rocked on her first-ever state visit to Ireland in 2011? That was one of Rachel’s. So, too, was the creation worn by the monarch when she met then president George W Bush on a 2007 trip to the US, as well as the all-white piece donned for her diamond wedding celebrations at Westminster Abbey the same year.

All of these were designed and crafted by Rachel in her St James’s studio in London.

Although Buckingham Palace has its own in-house team of milliners, she’s been commissioned to make more than 65 hats since her first royal assignment back in 2006.

Indeed, it seems the Queen is such a fan of her work, she’s even recommended her to friends and family: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, has been a customer too.

So, when Rachel says she doesn’t like to talk about the royals too much, I sort of want to tell her it’s a bit like Mick Jagger saying he doesn’t want to talk about The Rolling Stones’ songs too much.

That’s why we’re here, lady. That’s why my editor commissioned 1,500 words on you rather than that bloke who sells some smashing little trilbies for Dh15 a pop down Al Satwa. Essentially, I want to demand she gives us the gossip; that she reveals something along the lines of how, during a private fitting, the Queen once turned conspiratorially to her and asked what everyone else in the world was wondering: ‘What on earth was Beatrice wearing on her head at the royal wedding?’

But I don’t say any of those things. As I mentioned, Rachel is in Dubai to launch her new collection for Jacques Vert. So I ask about that and about the Dubai World Cup and what Friday readers should be looking out for when they buy a hat, and hope the Queen pops up later...

She does, too, bless her.

Interestingly, it seems there are certain practical issues that limit possible styles when designing headwear for Queen Elizabeth II. The brim needs to be relatively small “so people can see her face”; while nothing too high or wide is allowed, so it’s easy for her to get in and out of cars. Three hairpins are included in the finished product to ensure the hats never blow off her head.

Her Majesty likes bold colours so she stands out and is more than happy to speak up at fittings if she doesn’t like something.

“That doesn’t happen often, but it has done in the past,” says Rachel, a mother of three. “She has a style that suits her and which she likes so I’m used to that now. A lot of the time it’s really about varying the detail and the materials so it matches with the outfit, which I see in advance.”

Fittings, she says, are similar to any other client – except they take place at Buckingham Palace. There’s some small talk but nothing she will reveal. “Perhaps the first few times I was nervous but you have to be professional,” notes the designer. “Sometimes you forget who it is, then when you think about who you’re making the hat for and you get thrilled all over again.”

That means there’s an element of pressure, too. “The eyes of the world are on your work so you want it to look good and you want the Queen to look her best,” she says.

Rachel got the royal gig after the Queen’s then senior dresser Angela Kelly was made aware of her work. She phoned the milliner one morning in 2006, introduced herself and asked if she’d be interested in designing a hat for the monarch. When Rachel said yes, Angela told her she’d be along in 20 minutes to pick up some samples of the work.

Impressed by the designs, Angela commissioned a single hat; and so, within the fortnight, the milliner was at Buckingham Palace measuring the Queen’s head. “She has the same height and stature as my mother,” Rachel told one magazine not long after.

That first hat turned out to be her favourite of all those she’s ever made – “just because of who it was for”. It was a traditional crown and brim piece in cream with flower-shaped trimmings and was worn by the Queen for her 80th birthday celebration at St Paul’s Cathedral.

“You never get told when they will be worn so, even now, I still can’t believe she’ll be wearing one of my hats until I actually see the pictures,” says Rachel. “For her to wear it on her 80th birthday, though? Of course that meant a great deal.”

When I point out it means her creation will be in pictures seen down the centuries, there is a pause. “It’s a special feeling,” she says finally.

Rachel first got into millinery by accident when she was just 18 years old. Back then, the young woman, who was born in the glass-making town of Stourbridge in the UK’s West Midlands, had just moved to London to pursue her dream of becoming a theatrical-costume designer.

Looking for work experience, she wrote to Graham Smith, who was one of the capital’s most respected milliners having made hats for the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins and Princess Diana. He offered her an unofficial apprenticeship at his factory near Oxford Street, and she has never looked back.

“I loved doing it and learning new skills,” she says. “I think I realised quickly this is what I wanted to do. I was a perfectionist and I paid a lot of attention to detail, and I think those are qualities you need for this.”

After spending five years learning the trade, she set up on her own in 1990. Initially she sold her creations at a church market but, thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations and good networking, she was soon supplying pieces to major high-end stores including Fortnum & Mason, Harrods and Selfridges.

Today, 25 years on, she employs two staff and makes hundreds of hats for private clients every year. Typically she will see customers in the mornings and then get on with making the hats – from materials such as sinamay straw, stiffened cotton, grazia, Swiss braid and parabuntal – in the afternoon. Everything is hand-crafted in her little workshop. They even dye the colours there.

Her cheapest creations will set you back a minimum of Dh1,500. The most expensive she’s ever made cost almost Dh18,000. She demurs to say how much the Queen pays for hers.

Rachel may have been in this business for three decades now, but she won’t be hanging up her hats just yet.

Or, indeed, perhaps, ever.