When Stephen Jones makes hats, he invents complete characters. Jones’ private thrill in building a millinery collection is to gradually develop personalities, tell different stories, and unravel various adventures. Soho or London’s Gilded Gutter forms the theme of his A/W 2016-17 collection that just arrived in the MoMu collection thanks to a long-term loan by Geert Bruloot and Eddy Michiels. This party-inspired collection captures the bohemia intrinsic to his beloved Soho: That dodgy never-never land, that hallucinated enclave, where we waited, consumed by angst, to cure today’s hangover by making certain of tomorrow’s (George Melly).
Stephen Jones burst on to the London fashion scene during its explosion of street style in the late seventies. By day, he was a hard-working student at Central St. Martins; after dark he was one of that era’s uncompromising style-blazers at the legendary Blitz nightclub. With his Soho collection he brings an eclectic ode to the district in central London and explores different characters of the night: a Barbie-dancing queen, a British crown in fetish red lacquer, a knitted beret for a St Martin’s student, and a fluffy Parisian-chic fur hat with a burning cigarette.