William Chambers is a leading British milliner whose handmade hats and headpieces are stocked in the country’s top department stores. He is a former recipient of Stephen Jones’ Headonism collective and is one of the six members of the Ascot Style Collective, alongside Jones and Philip Treacy, amongst others.
He exhibits his collections every season at London Fashion
Week, and his hats are stocked in Harrods, Fenwick and Fortnum & Mason in
London, and Samuel’s Hats, New York. He has won Accessory Designer of the Year
three times at the Scottish Fashion Awards, in 2010, 2012 and 2014. He
opened his own hat shop in Glasgow city centre in 2014.
Celebrities who have worn his hats include Kelis, Kate Moss,
Joan Jett, Ana Matronic (Scissor Sisters), Roisin Murphy, Ashley Jensen, Tania
Korsakova, Livia Firth, Anna Dello Russo and Judy Murray, who commissioned a
Chambers hat for her son Andy’s wedding - photos of which appeared in every UK
newspaper the next day.
His work has appeared in Vogue, Elle, Evening Standard,
Style.com, Tatler, New York Post, Wallpaper, The Telegraph, The Sun, Metro,
Grazia, Red, Glamour, Conde Nast Brides, Nylon, The Herald, Harpers Bazaar,
International Herald Tribune, Travel & Leisure, Paper, Sunday Herald,
Scotsman and he features in the hardback book Couture Hats.
William Chambers gained a First Class Hons degree in Textile
Design at the Scottish College of Textiles before studying millinery at
Metropolitan University. He worked for luxury haberdashery VV Rouleaux before
setting up William Chambers Millinery in 2008 after winning the VICE UK Creative
30 competition.
William seeks to modernise millinery with a fresh look at how
we dress the head today. William’s taste for the avant-garde mixed with his
knowledge of the retail sector results in designs that are at once both
exquisite and wearable. He takes his inspiration from many sources, but the
biggest influence on his designs is his own flower-filled back garden - he is
as keen a gardener as he is a milliner.
He mixes traditional materials such as
felt and sinamay with contemporary materials like latex, plastic and metallic
leather, creating headwear that is both progressive and desirable.
