This interview is part of a series on David Beckham's countryside champions, as featured in the October 22, 2025 edition of Country Life. Read part 1 with stockman Trevor Kirk.
'An evening course in millinery at Leeds Arts University changed my life. Up to that point, I had been a student of English literature, I’d written and performed comedy sketches, I taught in India briefly and I’d performed as a drag queen on Manchester’s Canal Street. The costumes always interested me, too, and eventually overtook my passion for performance. To me, the finished outfits had to perform in a complete way and tell a story like the scripts. Headwear was the proverbial icing on the costume cake and, after that evening course, I began to make headpieces for drag queens and dancers.
'When covid came and outside life diminished, hats disappeared and I lost my job in fashion. I faced hardship until I crowd funded my way to a postgraduate diploma at Central Saint Martins. I then received a scholarship to study on the master’s programme at the Royal College of Art. Over time, I’ve had access to some of the best millinery tutors in the UK, including when I was selected for the first Chanel & The King’s Foundation Métiers d’Art Millinery Fellowship in Partnership with le19M, the majority of which was based at Highgrove Gardens in Gloucestershire. I was challenged by what I saw in the gardens there, feeling as if I was moving through micro worlds.
'Wanting to capture these layers, I created a Tall Garden Hat in green sinamay with pink polka dots, inspired by the traditional bowler and akin to how Highgrove’s shrubs are shaped by topiary. I also made a hat with a metal leaf flower that The Duchess of Gloucester wore at Royal Ascot. In the same week, the Scissor Sisters sported one of my extended cowboy hats.
'Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to win The King’s Foundation Young Entrepreneur Award and I met Sir David [a Foundation ambassador] at the presentation ceremony. He expressed his delight that young people are turning to niche and endangered British crafts, such as millinery.
'Ultimately, I love to question the convention that millinery should be so "English country garden". What about the people who live in high-rise buildings? What are the sculptural objects in their periphery? As a result, I’ve used items from car parts to cleaners’ buckets in my creations.
'Considering my beginnings, I never thought that I’d be interpreting flora and fauna asI do now, but you never quite know where hat creation will take you.'
Interview by Julie Harding
This feature originally appeared in the October 22, 2025 issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.
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'I bought it without telling Victoria. She didn’t want another project... I sat her down, gave her a vodka and tonic and told her what I’d done': David Beckham tells Alan Titchmarsh about his Cotswolds home and gardenOn an open and windswept tract of land in Oxfordshire, where once stood some derelict barns and a lone maple tree, our guest editor Sir David Beckham has created a haven for his family and his honeybees. Photographs by Clive Nichols and Millie Pilkington.
