David Shilling

David Shilling was born in London and attended St Paul's School, London.[3][4] He began to design hats and outfits at the age of twelve for his mother, Gertrude, until she died in 1999.[5] The hats were designed for Gertrude to wear to the Ascot horse races. At the age of thirteen he began selling toys to his local toyshop, before moving on to sell clothing accessories such as scarves to major retailers (for example Fenwick, Fortnum & Mason, and Liberty). He left St Paul's with the aim of pursuing design.

Shilling opened his first store in Marylebone High Street in 1976: two days after its opening the store received an order from a rock star's wife for twenty four hats.[6]

His first collection was purchased in America by Bloomingdale's; and other stores began selling his creations soon afterwards. In the late 1970s Bergdorf Goodman charged up to $3000 for David Shilling hats.

Shilling subsequently decided to stop the wholesale branch of his hat-making works and focus entirely on made-to-order products.

In 2007 he displayed the first of an expected ten collections of hats (each priced at £1,000,000) at Top Marques Monaco.[7] In November 2009 he held his first show in mainland China at the Ritz-Carlton in Beijing.

In 1988, the USSR invited Shilling to show his hats during the first Miss USSR Pageant in Moscow, the first live TV broadcast throughout the USSR, which was allegedly viewed by 200 million.[8]

In 1990 he headed a mission for the United Nations in Ecuador which was hugely successful and led to other projects as an art and design ambassador with the UN in Africa and Asia.

In 1994 Shilling was invited to design the emblem for Britain's Festival of Arts and Culture; due to this he became a driving force behind the new "Cool Britannia" rebranding of Britain.[9]

In 1998 his designs for theatre, opera, ballet, film and TV formed an exhibition at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.[10]

A hat with diamonds created by David in the late 1970s was nominated by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most expensive hat in the world in the 21st century.[11]

In 2012 David Shilling held a preview of a collection of hats designed for men at the Embassy of Monaco, London.

Shilling is now a respected fine artist, and is represented by the Redfern Gallery in Cork Street, London and Ferrero Gallery, Nice. His works may also be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum, the Louvre (Paris) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London).

One of David Shilling's three-dimensional white canvases is in the United Kingdom Government Art Collection.[12]

In 2005 David's steel sculptures were on display in Regent's Park and are now on show at Holdenby House, Northampton.[13]

• Official website