If the ceremonial hat fits

Known as ‘Jane the Hat’, milliner Jane Smith has been dressing some of our most famous actors’ heads since the late 1960s and her creations are about to take centre stage at the coronation, finds Simon Fenwick

- Simon Fenwick

CEREMONY and pageantry are things at which Britain excels— as if they were a part of the constitution or a natural instinct that runs in the nation’s blood. A film of the late Queen’s 1953 coronation shows various members of the Royal Household wearing regalia that represent their status in the hierarchy of uniformed attendants. It is hoped that the coronation of Charles III, almost exactly 70 years after that of his mother, will be similar to its predecessor.

Bicorns—the ceremonial hats worn by army and naval officers from the late 18th century onwards—will be worn on the day by the Garter King of Arms and the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl Marshal of England. Most of them will have started life in a Victorian terraced house in Battersea, the base of Jane Smith —the nation’s bicorn-maker-in-chief.

The door-knocker to Ms Smith’s south London home is a ship in full sail. She says it represents Sailing By, the theme music for the shipping forecast, a reminder that she is often still at work when the BBC is winding down for the night. A door from the hallway opens into the studio, which is a curiosity shop full both of intriguing instruments of the hatter’s trade and of trinkets and treasures salvaged from sets when the final curtain has fallen—topper blocks; hat stretchers for both ladies and gentlemen; a string of straw hats given to her by a friend; a basket of painted silk flowers; the plaster capital of a Corinthian column (rescued from a Royal Opera House stage set); portraits of Henry VIII’s six wives (which once formed a Madame Tussaud’s tableau) and a straw hat commissioned by