When Noel Stewart agreed to create a hat to grace the statue of Beau Brummell (1778 – 1830), he knew only too well that we was taking on the responsibility of dressing ‘the first dandy and arguably the first person to elevate men's dress to an art form’. The statue of the famous Regency dandy stands in Jermyn St, home to some of London’s finest tailors and shirt makers. Noel aimed to produce ‘something that was elegant and artful but had a sense of humour’. According to the milliner the resulting hat - a colourful turban - would have been ‘the predominant form of regency headwear.’

Noel Stewart learned his craft from Stephen Jones and Dai Rees and has built up an international business making hats for designers including Roland Mouret, Marios Schwabb, Roksanda Ilincic, Erdem, Hussein Chalayan, Richard Nicoll, Jaeger, Marc by Marc Jacobs. His private clients include celebrities such as Keira Knightley, Lady Gaga, Florence Welch and Kylie.