Hats off to the royal hatter

Philip Treacy's closest assistant, a young Italian called Alessandra, says she currently feels as if she is in Alice in Wonderland — or in this case, Alessandra in Wonderland.

Feathers hang from ceilings; fabrics and ribbons of every imaginable colour are attached to all available surfaces; and in the middle of it all is the Mad Hatter himself, Treacy, creating wedding headwear for the duchesses, queens and princesses who will be at Westminster Abbey on Friday.

A magpie would have a fit if it ever flew in here. The Duchess of Cornwall wore a fabulous feathered headpiece designed by Treacy for her marriage to the Prince of Wales. So it was natural that she should have recommended the milliner to Kate Middleton, who is said to have commissioned him to make hats for the bridal party.

Treacy HQ currently home to hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of hats and a priceless amount of information about the day itself.

"It's funny," says Alessandra. "We have sniffer dogs and [security] things like that downstairs sometimes, but the photographers never find us."

We sit down in a meeting room covered in his creations, which range from the sublime to the ridiculous.

"That's the great thing about the job I do," Treacy tells me. "If I designed dresses I would just have one type of customer, but doing hats I get to work with Lady Gaga and the wife of Prince Charles and everybody in between."

Wide-ranging

He mentions working with Grace Jones and the late Elizabeth Taylor, and there is a hat on display that spells out "Britney" in black feathers. Treacy must be the only man who can boast Gaga, Camilla, Grace, Liz and Spears in the same room. To be in his studio allows you to see just how wide-ranging Treacy's work is.

In one turn of the eye I see a bright blue wide-brimmed hat that is made out of plastic and looks like a spaceship; a shiny black PVC pillbox hat that is so saucy I imagine you would wear it with nothing else; and some of the more traditional designs, similar to the one Middleton wore to Prince William's passing-out parade at Sandhurst.

Treacy has been the go-to man for fabulous hats ever since he was spotted by Isabella Blow in the late '80s.

She asked Treacy to make the hat for her medieval-themed wedding, and that was that. Treacy and Issie became best friends; he once described it as being like "an affair without sex". She made him famous. He made her look like an icon.

"We've been very busy recently, what with the wedding," he says, as we make our way to the room containing his staff of six hat-makers, some of whom have been with him since the very beginning. There are pin cushions, feathers and fabric everywhere, women stitching each hat with love.

Working with his hands is like therapy for Treacy. "I remember in the early '90s people saying the hat was just for old women, but that's ridiculous. Everyone has a head. A hat can make you feel special and young women look great in them."

Take, for example, Kate Middleton. Is Treacy going to the royal wedding? "No, no, but my hats are, and that's nice."

He walks me round as the milliners in his charge sew together creations that will be there on the day; he is also creating items for foreign royalty, "but it would be far too indiscreet of me to tell you who exactly, or what they are wearing." A smile. "Now let me show you my hat moulds."

More interesting, though, are the giant boards to the side of these moulds. They feature pictures of various people I am pretty sure are on the guest list for the royal wedding — the Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Beatrice, Lady Gabriella Windsor, the Duchess of Kent, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, and so the roll-call goes on… And I am even more sure that beside these people's pictures are the details of hats and dresses and… "Philip!" I find myself saying with a shriek, grabbing his arm like an over-excited child who has just been told she is going to Disneyworld.

"Are those the plans for the wedding?" Treacy smiles. Indeed they are. On our way out, I ask Treacy if the guests are being restrained and understated with their requests, what with the current economic climate and all that. "Oh no," he laughs. "You'll definitely notice some of the headpieces on the day."

With the Mad Hatter involved in the party, I suppose we shouldn't expect anything less.

Other Royal Wedding tidbits

Kate Middleton is so stressed out about her wedding that she is having a recurring nightmare of being naked in front of all her guests.

The Sun reports: "Kate has the last-minute jitters... She finds herself in front of the congregation and then becomes suddenly aware she is completely naked. Kate has joked the worst bit is she can't work out which parts to cover."

William and Kate will spend their last days as singletons apart: Kate will remain at home before travelling to London to stay in the Goring Hotel with her family today, while William has returned to Clarence House in London to spend time with his father Prince Charles and best man and brother Prince Harry.