There's a technicality to designing and wearing hats. A hat is balancing the proportions of your face; it's like architecture or mathematics.

I'm representative of 21st century Irish design, so I promote Irishness all over the world wherever I go.

I make hats for lots of iconic people, and that makes my job very interesting.

Certainly, people like Gaga have introduced a new type of hat-wearing.

I believe that I am a hat designer, not a milliner.

The only person I never made a hat for was my mother because my mother didn't really - she preferred to make her own hats. I mean, she was intrigued by everything, but she didn't want one of my hats. She made her own.

I was just, as a child, very different from the others, and didn't really care what they thought because you know, a child doesn't really have inhibitions; you sort of gain your inhibitions later.

I always design the hat with the wearer in mind; otherwise, it's an inanimate object.

I believe in originality, primarily. However, it's important to know what there has been before to aim in that direction. Art history informs us. It informs our mind. I like to look at books, exhibitions, paintings, as a computer, subconsciously taking on information.

You always see a better side of where you're visiting when a local shows you around.

I like hats that make the heart beat faster.

When people come and visit me and have a hat made, it's a little bit like visiting a psychiatrist, but they don't actually realize that.

My mother had a sewing machine. I was never allowed to use it, but I was so fascinated by this little needle going up and down joining fabric together that I'd use it when my mother went out to feed the chickens.

I must point out - Sarah Jessica Parker is not a diva - she's one of these pop culture characters that everybody likes.

When people think of hats, they think of her majesty the queen.

I love the romance of what I do, although because of Isabella, Lady Gaga and Grace Jones, people think I have crazy customers. Sometimes I get more enthusiasm from the housewife who wants a hat and believes in it.

Often, what makes my job so exciting is designing for the mother whose dream has been to wear one of my hats at her child's wedding. I feel as responsible for making her feel like a million dollars as I do for somebody in the public eye.

When you meet someone, you meet their face. It's the most potent part of the body to embellish.

I used to make clothes for my sister's dolls. I couldn't care less for the dolls, but I could make the clothes really easily.

America brought us the baseball cap; it's one of my favorite hats.

At home, I had seven brothers, one sister. I sewed clothes for my sister's dolls although she was grown and gone away. I was a weirdo but didn't think I was a weirdo.

I grew up in a little village in the west of Ireland.

Fashion is an illusion. It's a multibillion-pound industry that has to appear frivolous. Designers work and work and work, all night sometimes.

Women come into our shop for that ultimate moment in their life. They're buying a dream. They're buying a moment for themselves. That's what I sell - moments.

Hats are attached to special moments in people's lives - weddings, or the races. In difficult times, people still get married; they still want to look their best.

People are dressing like stars, which is kind of fantastic.

I believe in a democratic approach to fashion: if you feel good, then great. You may not look good, but it's not the problem.

Try on 100 different hats if you can, until you find the one that suits you best. It's a trial and error thing.

Fantasy hats give you the possibility to dream.

I want to excite the eye through hatmaking.

People, when they buy a hat, they can't explain why they want to buy it or why they want it, but they do. It's like chocolate.