Imagine a piece from your first collection appearing on the cover of Italian Vogue. That’s how Prudence – one of the UK’s most respected couture milliners – started her career.
Earlier this month, Prudence visited Regent’s to talk to MA International Fashion Marketing students about her career as a couture milliner in London and Paris, where she worked with some of the world’s top designers.
In her talk, Prudence explored iconic moments in the history of fashion, illustrated through her own millinery designs: the now-famous Pharrell Williams hat, Vivienne Westwood’s Harris tweed collection, Carla Bruni on the cover of French Elle, and the hats she designed for Julien MacDonald, which were later borrowed by Juicy Couture and styled with a pink horse.
Sometimes bold, sometimes subtle and always directional, Prudence’s work is beautiful – and always tells the story of a collection. One of her more recent commissions is the millinery for Mother of Pearl, which featured fabulous quilted swim caps, huge floating ties, and luxurious velvet.
Prudence has worked with Vivienne Westwood over her career, creating the couture millinery that appears on the catwalk in Westwood’s shows and which helps to create the looks of each season and to tell the story of Westwood’s collections.
Students looked through original pages of Westwood’s drawings, as well as original designs by Tom Ford, who Prudence created the millinery for when he was at Yves St Laurent. They also got to see photographs of her designs on the catwalk.
With such a rich back catalogue, one might think Prudence approaches her work with meticulous precision. But she capped off her talk with some insight into her liberated creative process.
‘Everyone thinks that there are perfectly created plans and drawings,’ she said. ‘But what happens instead is you go to a meeting and everyone scribbles.’