“On a personal note, Patricia Underwood has been hugely influential to me as she is one of only a few milliners to be making hats that had an understated ease. Whilst there were a lot of milliners making amazing statement hats that wore the wearer, she seemed able to make hats that the wearer wore. It can be easy to pile on the trims, ’bells and whistles’, but to strip a shape bare and make it all about the flow and feel, is much harder than it looks. It takes an advanced attunement to edit, and purity of design to create that timeless chic that does not fight with the clothes for the spotlight, but instead elevates them. 

She has created so many stitched braid hats using an innovative variety of braids including leather, without the need for interfacing wires and linings … refreshingly they just didn’t need it, so could easily be worn at both the beach and a wedding. Dressed up or dressed down always simple and elegant she understood the contemporary wearer.”