The Tamesis
Now in its eleventh year, the Royal Ascot Millinery Collective sets the tone for next season’s occasionwear on the final day of London Fashion Week. With creative director Daniel Fletcher (who wears many hats himself) at the helm, the collective unites brilliant emerging milliners to celebrate their craft through a range of bespoke designs.
Royal Ascot is a national institution with a storied heritage, held during the summer at the world’s most famous racecourse. The five-day horse racing event attracts around 275,000 people to Ascot each year, who dress in accordance with the Royal Paddocks dress code – where creativity is everywhere. From the puffy silhouettes and porter hats of the Victorian era to the more glamorous swinging sixties, Royal Ascot fashion has and continues to evolve. (In recent years, sharp tailoring, top hats, and tailcoats have become more accessible to women.) Today, Royal Ascot remains the master of elegant dress, with sculptural hats and architectural headdresses. (It is also, uniquely, a patron of the British Fashion Council.)
Photo: Sam Lott
This is their second year showing their work at Claridge’s department store in London, with the designs presented in salon-style colour-blocked tableaus. For 2026, designers drew inspiration from Cecil Beaton’s dramatic storytelling and glamorous touchpoints of the social scene of the 1920s and 1930s: bridal pillboxes in luscious white, dark handmade feather tiaras, swooshes of silver straw and gray taffeta, lavender floral creations. Works by Stephen Jones OBE and Rachel Trevor-Morgan have appeared on the heads of many royals and celebrities including Carol Kennelly, Edwina Ibbotson, Emily Baxendale, Emily Hurst, Filipa Cardoso Cardoso, millinery Laa-Laa’s Fiona Cooper, Hood London, Jenny Beattie and Vivien Sheriff also took part in the display. (Hearst is the first recipient of a new bursary from the King’s Fund, Royal Ascot and Chanel.)
Guests include Kelly Osbourne, bridgeton Actor Martins Imhangbe, writer Yomi Adegoke and model Charli Howard. Stephen Jones posed with actor and beloved antique shop owner Virginia Bates, who cutely played with her bird-shaped headpiece as she posed for the photo. The room was filled with creative luminaries like award-winning British furniture designer Aaron Dunkerton, who made a splash with his revolutionary clothes rack design. Haute milliner Victoria Grant stood out in her own shiny gold beret, emblazoned with a neon “Champagne” logo.
