When I was visiting the Castle of Gruyères in Switzerland, I saw some beautiful highly embellished caps that were worn by cavaliers from Burgundy at the time they conquered the estate. Those garments were their way to establish the new power to the locals. Having a background in history of fashion, I was interested to know more about the evolution of garments used for political purposes and I wondered what was used today.

Strangely, I am not fascinated by caps. I am interested in the work I put in to them. In the end, it is all about the language of craftsmanship — body + object in symbiosis. Lots of milliners play with volumes and see their hats like ‘bouquets’ but to me it is the opposite, it is about bringing people in.

I love to think that my work embeds three timeline axes: the past, in the craftsmanship of the old techniques I use; the present, in the modernity of the social and political symbolism that the cap as a shape represents; and the future, because such a piece can be worn or appreciated timelessly. Testifying savoir-faire is about empowering people by witnessing high crafts to acquire knowledge.

In 2014, I was in charge of creating a dress for Oprah for the BAFTA’s red carpet, based on a stylist’s design. My role was to rework the original lines to make a dress to measure for her. I had only 24 hours to make it perfect. Everyone was very impressed by the quality and the tailoring skills to accomplish such transformation in such a short amount of time.