Born: Urana, Australia, 1931
Frederick Fox, England's most distinguished milliner, is an Australian who spent his childhood on a farm in New South Wales. During the Second World War, he created new hats by cutting up old ones and reconstructing them. At 17 years old he moved to Sydney, where he visited other milliners - first Henriette Lamotte, who pointed him in the direction of a Mrs Normoyle. Nine months later he moved to Phyl Clarkson, where he stayed for ten years. He travelled to London via Paris and secured a job with Otto Lucas. It was, by his own admission, a tough learning curve: `I was 26, looked 15 and was in charge of a table of 40 women old enough to be my mother.' He moved on to Mitzi Lorenz, then to Langée in Brook Street, London, which he took over in 1964, and then moved to his present premises in Bond Street.
Fox began making hats to complement the Queen's wardrobe, designed by Hardy Amies, in 1968. His first five hats were for a tour of Chile and Argentina. He received his royal warrant in 1974 as Milliner to HM The Queen and was awarded an LVO in the Queen's 1999 birthday honours list. At one time he hatted eight royal ladies - including Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Princess Alice and Diana, Princess of Wales.
Fox's talent is not limited to creating hats for Ascot, chic weddings and royal tours. He has worked with Red or Dead, and designed the white leather crash helmets that appeared in Stanley Kubrik's classic film 2001, A Space Odyssey (1968).
