Biography
Born in Manchester, England and raised in New York by Jamaican parents is what helps to give Jacqueline’s designs such a broad base appeal. Jacqueline studied architecture and Interior design at Pratt Institute and graduated in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Working in the garment industry is where she gained firsthand knowledge of how fabric was used to put designer collections together. It was this love of design, fabric and texture that inspired Ms. Lamont to open her own design company.
Jacqueline studied Millinery under Janine Galiamard an old school French Milliner who had made hats for Cristobal Balenciaga. Janine taught her all the rules of making a great hat and urged her to start her own Millinery collection, complete with its own namesake Lamont Tartan.
Philosophy
“My hats are designed to give you confidence. I want whomever wears my hats to feel stylish look gorgeous and live bold, simply wonderful.
The shapes are timeless, but the fabrications make them contemporary. “I like using interesting combinations of design and fabric. “I work a lot with unstructured styles, so as not to intimidate and overpower the wearer” explains Jacqueline. I’m also not into fussy and excessive ornamentation. You can’t have too much going on, on the head,” she laughs. “I create hats to be worn not displayed, it’s more about style than fashion”.
Who, What and Where
Jacqueline’s hats have been featured in Elle, Essence, Vogue, NY Times, W plus many more. She has done private label collections for Burberry and J. Crew. In addition, Jacqueline has created hats for numerous artists and music videos.
Articles on the designer have appeared in American, Asian, Caribbean and European, publications. In a true testament to her talents, Jacqueline Lamont’s hats were featured in The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s retrospective “Ahead of Fashion: hats of the 20th Century”, where a special selection of her custom hats were sold. She was also featured in the book “A Century of Hats”.
Ms. Lamont designs hats that are stylish and strikingly elegant, but appropriate for everyday wear. Her hats are prized possessions of Alicia Keys, Angela Bassett, Annie Leibovitz, Cindy Crawford, Eva Mendes, Gwen Stefani, Janet Jackson, Jessica Simpson and Mary J. Blige; to name a few.