Factories swap occasionwear for masks, visors and scrubs. Late April typically finds Noel Stewart’s studio abuzz. The milliner should be working through stacks of orders for Royal Ascot, summer weddings and the social season.
But this week, his work table displayed tidy bundles of acetate panels, foam strips and elastic bands, all components for a very different type of headpiece: medical visors.
Stewart is one of a group of milliners (also including Philip Treacy, Stephen Jones and Rachel Trevor Morgan) who have volunteered to produce protective visors through the #VisorArmy.
The initiative is producing 12,000 visors a week for ICU doctors and nurses in London hospitals. “People think of millinery as a very frivolous, fun and flamboyant