Bernstock Speirs, OysterBERNSTOCK SPEIRS
Published in Oyster, Australia’s cutting edge fashion magazine
Like the tumbledown area of East London Paul Bernstock and Thelma Speirs have called home for over twenty years, there’s something enduringly vibrant about these infamous hat designers. Tucked up in the back of their Brick Lane shop one sunny afternoon, they settle down enthusiastically to their coffee and cigarettes with Oyster to talk about their history together and the recent re-introduction of their authentic label Bernstock Speirs after a lengthy absence from the world’s best-dressed heads.
Thelma met Paul back in 1979 at Middlesex Polytechnic where both were studying fashion textiles. “I was from the country and Paul was from London so I remember thinking he was rather chic. We used to call his gang the Royal Family,” Thelma recalls from her dusty distant memory. “I’d done a foundation at St Martins so by the time I got to uni I was already into going clubbing and the whole Blitz scene,” adds Paul of his halcyon early days.
It was the era of Boy George, Leigh Bowery and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. London was buzzing and Paul jumped in feet first with his own plastic fantastic club night White Trash. It wasn’t long before he put partying before pattern cutting. “I got thrown out at the end of my second year. I was lazy basically whereas Thelma was the star of her year.” Killing a year at French Connection while waiting for Thelma to graduate, the twosome joined forces again in ‘81. “It was an odd time because up to that point the only jobs available were in Paris or Milan but suddenly people didn’t want to leave London because it felt really exciting here so they started doing their own thing,” says Paul between puffs. “Hats had become part of the club scene. It was a very dandy dress up time so it seemed the thing to do.”
They set about customising old hats and hoods with car paint and rags and selling their creations in a shop Thelma worked at in the West End. Then one day Jeff Banks (designer and owner of high street chain Warehouse) came in and wanted some. “We did them over a kitchen table one weekend and got this big order. Then Joseph stocked us and that really got us going. American buyers would come down to White Trash and we’d do sales from the cloakroom. It was all quite organic.”
By hitting on a niche spirit of the time, Bernstock Speirs had broken away from the traditional view of hats as special occasion wear. Instead they were offering wearable, trend-lead bonnets that went on to sell on a global scale. The likes of Gaultier, Ozbeck, Agnes B and DKNY all commissioned them and celebrities including Grace Jones, Bros and Bananarama were fans – as was a certain Aussie pop princess. “Kylie wore one on the cover of an album but at the time it was really embarrassing because she wasn’t cool then,” yarns Thelma.
Oh how times change – and they did in the world of fashion too. After a decade of hat hierarchy, Paul and Thelma had had enough. “It didn’t feel right any more. The 90s were a weird time for fashion. It had all become very safe and beige. The country was in recession and we were battling through something we weren’t passionate about any more so we stopped.” They turned their attentions to womenswear instead, opened their first shop in Shoreditch and came out with a succession of brightly coloured collections that went down a storm, especially in Japan. But with the mood change that blew in with the new century, Bernstock Speirs began to miss those caps. “People were dressing up again so we had a good look round and nothing had really changed since the last time we’d done it. There was still milliners doing what they did well like Stephen Jones and Philip Treacy but our hats were always more masculine and no one was doing that well.”
Their first full collection for Autumn Winter 2004 goes back to basics with 15 unisex styles based around the bowler, trilby, homberg and Stetson. Giving these traditional shapes a twist with football knits, felt, straw and paisley, they’re already stocked in Liberty, Selfridges and Collette. For next summer they’ve expanded to 30 styles in a muted palette mixed with a strong military theme utilising camouflage and ID tags. They’ve also started a bespoke service and current clients include Alicia Keys, David Beckham, Madonna and the king of soul himself, James Brown. “It was a bit of a funny meeting. We had to go to his hotel and it was all really quick but we got a message from his manager Super Frank that he thought ‘Bernstock Speirs hats are as hip as hip gets’.”
Mr Brown is not wrong. Part of Thelma and Paul’s longevity is their understanding of what a hat says about its wearer. It takes confidence to put one on but at the same time it gives you confidence by wearing it. “People look at you differently in a hat, you get a lot more attention yet you can hide in one too,’ says Thelma sagely. “For example I went to a London Fashion Week show and I didn’t have a ticket but because I was wearing this yellow hat they thought I was important and put me in the front row.” Fashion blaggers take note.
Confidence is one thing neither Paul nor Thelma lack. Comfortable in their own skins and with each other, they not only work together all day but also have flats in the same building nearby. And when not talking headbands and brim widths, you’ll find them topping a select card playing circuit with local fashionistas Tatty Devine (their shop’s next door), interior designer David Collins and American Vogue's Hamish Bowles. “We’re quite competitive,” Thelma confesses. “Everyone’s good so it’s quite exciting.” So has cards replaced clubbing or can Bernstock and Speirs still party as hard as ever? “Well, we’re still social, put it that way,” Paul croaks out through a dirty laugh. We bet you are.
Bernstock Speirs, 234 Brick Lane, London E2, 020 7739 7385
Words Helen Jennings