Aage Thaarup

Among his notable clients were the Queen Mother and Queen – for whom he designed the bearskin tricorn worn at the annual Trooping the Colour parade. When this famous hat was displayed at an exhibition in 2003, Suzy Menkes said in The New York Times: "There is a particular combination of madness and dignity to the dashing tricorn that Aage Thaarup created".

Among those who worked for Thaarup were Constance Babington Smith – a trained hatmaker although she was more interested in aviation – and the notable milliner John Boyd, who was Thaarup's apprentice. Examples of Aage Thaarup's work are held in, among others, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Museum Victoria, Melbourne. His most enduring model, the tricorn bearskin, was among the works included in the 2003 Kensington Palace exhibition Hats and Handbags – with all items in the exhibition being selected by the Queen and her assistants.

A 1961 profile in The Observer recalled that, while there was an endless succession of society heads needing hats during the days of The Raj and the season meant following society from Bombay to Delhi, Lahore and the Khyber Pass – taking in polo matches and garden parties along the way – Thaarup was living hand to mouth during this time. Nonetheless, he made his mark; a milliner in Lahore still (in 1961) had a sign painted above his shop bearing the legend: 'Noor Mohammed, late of Aage Thaarup (London & Paris) Model Hats'.

In 1961, Thaarup was granted a Royal Warrant. This remained in place until 1974, even though he had been less active in business since the mid 1960s, when he officially retired.

With the backing of friends, Thaarup continued to make hats, moving to smaller premises at 132 King's Road Chelsea. The move to one of the soon-to-be epicentres of the Swinging London scene was a step down from Mayfair, but seems to have inspired Thaarup. He ended his 1959 show by saying: "Stop, we are forgetting Young London", then bringing forward a young amateur model who had been co-opted when he spotted her passing his store and placing one of his hats on her head. The reporter noted that the young girl wore the typical Chelsea outfit of white stockings, straight hair and plain dress and both she and the audience were delighted by the transforming effect of a design created by this: "dearly loved figure in the London fashion world". In 1960, Thaarup was reported to be collaborating with hairdresser Vidal Sassoon to ensure the hats matched the new decade's hairstyles. A year later – still sponsored by friends – Thaarup moved to business premises in Hanover Square.

He became known for inspired marketing gimmicks, such as the doll-sized hats created as gift tokens in 1956 – these could be exchanged for a full-sized model from his store. The following year the hat gift tokens were placed inside Easter eggs.

In 1955, he was declared bankrupt – something The Times attributed to overtrading – although Thaarup's generosity to his circle may have been a contributory factor. Thaarup said at the hearing that he had been helping friends and relatives in Denmark. After the bankruptcy hearing was over, his friends clubbed together so that he could spend the weekend in The Ritz. It was noted in The Times after his death that the patronage of the British royal family continued even after his bankruptcy.

At the Trooping of the Colour, the replacement of the monarch's traditional bearskin with a tricorn cap with osprey plume was considered contemporary when Princess Elizabeth first wore it in 1951 (standing in for her father who was unwell). But it was also a practical modification, being more lightweight, and a contemporaneous account by the BBC said Thaarup had based it on an 18th-century regimental design, with the addition of the feather to soften what was otherwise a man's cap.

As milliner to Elizabeth II – and referred to as such by many media sources during the 1950s although his official Royal Warrant was not formally granted until 1961 – Thaarup was responsible for many hats captured in film and photographs. For official engagements, he had to design models that stayed on, co-ordinated with the Queen's outfits and revealed her face to onlookers and the world's press. He said: "In making a hat for a royal lady, one needs to bear in mind the need for the royal face to be visible. But the hat must be contemporary and reflect what is attractive in personal taste."

Thaarup had many friends with cash to spare. On one occasion, the hotelier Victor Sassoon bought his whole hat collection to give to the female guests at his Christmas house party. While Thaarup had many A-list clients, he also designed more functional mass-market lines, including the 1950 cap design for the Women's Royal Army Corps walking out uniform. He was in good company, since Edward Molyneux designed the uniform's beret and Norman Hartnell took charge of the uniform itself.

For George VI's 1947 tour of South Africa, Norman Hartnell and Thaarup prepared the queen consort's garments by numbering every outfit and matching hat to ensure there was no confusion. Thaarup also had to consider the vagaries of the climate in his designs – hat pins that resisted rust and fabrics that wouldn't be irresistible to insects. He also included hats with ostrich feathers – a major South African export and highly prized by the garment and millinery industries.

In 1943, Thaarup lost a well-publicised libel case against the publishers of the magazine Lilliput. It juxtaposed (on facing pages) a picture of him and one of his flower-decorated hats with the caption: 'I only wanted a few pansies' with another image of a gardener holding a garden fork with the caption: 'Keep out of my garden'. While his counsel had argued that this might imply he was a "degenerate who should be shunned by all right-thinking members of society", the defendant successfully argued that there was no defamatory intention. At this time, the word 'pansy' was a slang term for a gay man and the decriminalisation of homosexual acts was more than 20 years away. In July 1943, the Court of Appeal ordered that there were sufficient grounds for a new trial. Thaarup's reputation survived – by 1950, he was chairman of the Association of London Millinery Designers and that year helped to choose suitable headgear for the WRAF in company with an air marshal, an air chief marshal and an air commandant.

Thaarup could not enlist during the war – he was lame and also a Danish national – but he continued to design hats, some of which aimed to help the war effort. In 1941, he attracted press coverage for creating the London Pride hat – a model adorned with the saxifrage that thrived on bombsites created by the London Blitz. It was said he planned to send shipments of the hats all over the world and a reporter from The Sydney Morning Herald gushed: "It has taken a Dane to turn 'London Pride'...into a symbol."

Despite his marketing successes, Thaarup had financial difficulties throughout his career. In 1940–42 his business went into administration for the first time – partly as a result of wartime trading conditions – although unlike clothing hats were not rationed. As business improved, he launched a small wholesale business and, by 1944, he was described as "Britain's leading hat designer" and quoted saying that women were asking for: "more thrilling models". The reporter also noted that his recent success has been based on Regency and Chinese-influenced designs for the home market. Two years later, a British Pathé film showcased his latest line of Tudor-inspired hats.

While Thaarup's sewing skills were very limited – he relied on his assistants to actually make the hats and told The Observer he could barely mend a hole in his own sock – he could match the hat to the occasion, the outfit and the wearer. This flair would mean he later moved his business to Grosvenor Street and began exporting his hats to high-end stores such as Lord & Taylor in New York. His fashion shows were memorable, and events such as his surrealist-inspired show in New York in 1936 earned him the title "The Mad Hatter". His house in Chelsea attracted other creatives and some became contributors to the short-lived magazine Pinpoints he launched in 1938.

Returning to London in 1932, Thaarup set up shop in cramped upstairs rooms just off Berkeley Square. His reputation grew by the hat and he began attracting London society customers – including Wallis Simpson.

Aage Thaarup (1906–1987) was a Danish-born milliner who ran a celebrated hatmaking business in London between the 1930s and 1970s.