David Shilling is synonymous with hats

LONDON: David Shilling is probably the world's most famous hat designer. His name has become synonymous with hats. He was credited with "singlehandedly reviving hats worldwide" by Ulster Museum in 1981, and recently by Los Angeles County Museum.

Since he began to show his collections of inventive designs in the late 1970s, he has changed attitudes to head wear worldwide. Think of modern hats and you should think of David Shilling. He has created a whole new genre which is flourishing around the world. He has not just inspired women and men worldwide to appreciate hats but has encouraged young men and women to make their careers in millinery.

The extraordinary success of his hats has perhaps put his other significant achievements in the field of design in the shade.

Shilling was born in the heart of London's West End. He went to Colet Court and then St. Paul's School, London.

When he was 12 years of age David came home from school one day to find that the giant black and white tulle creation he designed for his mother to wear to the Royal Ascot race meeting was on the front page of the evening newspaper. Her reputation as Ascot's Mascot had begun.

Despite having no formal education in art or design since leaving school, he has become the only British designer to have had an extensive traveling exhibition of his work in museums and public art galleries in Britain.

In 1976 Shilling opened his first shop in London's Marylebone High Street, selling a variety of things designed by him, including blouses, scarves, day and evening wear, wedding dresses and silk flowers. But it was the hats which immediately ensured him enormous success. On the second day of opening one client ordered 24 hats. His hats were immediately eagerly sought by stores in America, such as Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdales' and Nieman Marcus, and in Japan and Spain. But soon he stopped wholesaling, barely able to satisfy the demand of his personal clients.

In England, Fenwick and Fortnum and Mason sold other accessories designed by him. His hats were considered to be objets d'art and so in Europe they were exhibited in art galleries instead of in stores.

After a show in 1980 at the Angela Flowers Gallery in London, the Ulster Museum began plans for an exhibition entitled David Shilling -- The Hats which went on to tour public art galleries and museums in the British Isles including Plymouth, Durham, Worthing, Exeter, Cheltenham and Leeds. Some of these museums are among those which have his work in their permanent collections. His work is now in the Metropolitan in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum, the Musee de L'Art Decoratif in Paris and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

-- British Tourist Authority