Exclusive: Queen Elizabeth's Hat Maker Shares Behind-the-Scenes Stories and Favorite Designs from Her Personal Scrapbook
Stella McLaren opens her memory box for 'Marie Claire,' sharing the unlikely inspiration behind some of the late Queen's incredible hats.
Hats were as integral to Queen Elizabeth’s persona as her beloved corgis and Launer handbags, and as the Royal Family gets ready to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the late Queen’s birth on April 21, her iconic style is being revisited. Stella McLaren made hats for Queen Elizabeth for more than 30 years, and now she’s sharing some of her favorite designs and anecdotes from her storied career.
McLaren, who gave her first-ever interview to Marie Claire in 2024, originally worked for royal milliners Frederick Fox and Phillip Somerville before taking up a role at Buckingham Palace in 2008. Working with Queen Elizabeth’s personal assistant and senior dresser, Angela Kelly, McLaren was responsible for creating the late monarch’s colorful hats—and the milliner says that she couldn’t even guess how many headpieces she created in her many years at the palace.
Sometimes, inspiration came from some unusual places. “She was always so interested in the hats and how we came about the trimmings,” McLaren says of the late Queen. “I said, ‘We can’t go in IKEA without Angela dragging me around the artificial flowers and buying stuff.’”
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Queen Elizabeth wears a pom-pom trimmed hat in 2018.
McLaren shares a photo of the fabric that inspired the late Queen's bright pink hat, seen at Royal Ascot 2017.
Queen Elizabeth wears a hat featuring vintage velvet roses at Royal Ascot 2019.
Along with finding florals at IKEA, McLaren says Kelly also spotted a colorful fabric and a potted plant at Buckingham Palace and used that to come up with the accents for one of Queen Elizabeth’s neon pink hats.
Speaking of the bright purple hat trimmed with pom-poms that the late Queen wore for a 2018 visit, McLaren shares that Queen Elizabeth “was amazed” by the process behind it. “She wanted to know how I got the perfect matching pom-poms. I said, ‘I unraveled some of your coat fabric, wet it to get the wrinkles out and made them. She said, ‘How clever you are.’”
McLaren says such moments happened regularly, as the late Queen was “always interested in fashion and moving with the times,” and wasn’t scared to “try different styles” and be “brave with her colors and trimmings.”
Another favorite is the pale blue hat trimmed with roses that Queen Elizabeth wore to Royal Ascot in 2019. “We found these vintage velvet roses to perfectly match her dress,” McLaren shares. “She loved it.”
Reflecting on the hat she made for Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee river pageant, McLaren says the design was “covered in Swarovski crystals,” and “had the weather been sunny it would have set the Thames alight.”
Queen Elizabeth wears a silk hat with blue roses as she attends a service to mark the 60th anniversary of her coronation.
Queen Elizabeth poses with McLaren (center) and Angela Kelly in a photo from McLaren's scrapbook.
For a church service marking the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 2013, McLaren made a silk hat from a beautiful Oriental-print fabric. “I took it down for a fitting with its trimming and she said, ‘Why the blue roses?’” the milliner recalls. “I said, ‘If you look at the fabric in a certain light you’ll see the little blue Chinese boats.’” The late Queen then “went over to the window and said, ‘Oh yes, trust Angela, she’s so good at fabrics and colors.’”
Along with the designs McLaren made at the palace, she also created numerous hats for Queen Elizabeth while working for Freddie Fox and Phillip Somerville. Sharing behind-the-scenes photos of an intricately woven blue hat the late Queen wore for her Golden Jubilee, the milliner tells Marie Claire that the topper “was a work of art.”
Describing her “favorite type of millinery,” McLaren says that the hat was created by making “loads of straps on the bias and weaving them on to a block.” She would then “steam and press it and wire the edge.”
A photo from McLaren's scrapbook features a piece of braided fabric and a picture of the completed hat Queen Elizabeth wore for her Golden Jubilee.
Another scrapbook image shows the gold straw hat McLaren made freehand for the late Queen.
Sharing photos of another headpiece, McLaren says that Fox “sent a pattern to America to have it made up and paid £220 way back in the ‘90s.” After telling the milliner that he was “mad” and that she could do it herself, McLaren then made the incredible sinamay hat—which features swirled pieces of straw across the piece— “free hand on the machine.”
Reflecting on her working relationship with Queen Elizabeth, McLaren says it was “an amazing privilege” to work for the late monarch. Admitting that “nobody goes into millinery for the wages,” she shares that “we do it because we love making hats.”
“To be taken on by the palace was unbelievable and the most wonderful job for a wonderful woman,” McLaren continues. “To be part of Angela Kelly’s team on the dresser’s floor until the very end was a dream come true. We will go down in history and I’m very proud of that.”
