Hats off to Philip Treacy as profits top €400,000

ACCUMULATED profits at the firm owned by Galway hat designer Philip Treacy climbed to £350,316 (€400,445) last year.

The Galway-born designer has a client base that includes Lady Gaga, Madonna, Beyoncé, David and Victoria Beckham, Grace Jones and Sarah Jessica Parker.

New accounts filed by Treacy’s London-based Philip Treacy Ltd show that profits rose from £329,582 to £350,316 in the 12 months to the end of June 30 last.

The figures lodged with Companies House in the UK show that the cash pile fell from £301,000 to £166,486.

The increase in profit follows a number of years of strong growth – in 2016 accumulated profits rose by £34,474 with accumulated profits increasing by £48,558 in 2015 and by £238,604 in 2014.

The profits recorded in 2014 were more than double the £112,812 profit recorded in 2013 and the profits of £110,585 in 2012.

The abridged accounts do not provide a revenue figure or salaries paid out during last year. The 2017 accounts show that shareholder funds totalled £500,416 that included share capital of £150,100.

The business includes the Philip Treacy boutique at Belgravia in London.

Lady Gaga – who made famous one of Treacy’s best known creations, a phone-shaped headpiece with a removable handset – has previously declared at a London Fashion Week event that Philip Treacy “is the greatest milliner in the world”.

Treacy was awarded an OBE in 2007 for services to the British fashion industry, having created bespoke headwear for iconic figures like Valentino, Karl Lagerfeld, Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani.

He also designed pieces for the Harry Potter films and UK royals who attended the wedding of Prince William and Kate in 2011. In a press interview, Mr Treacy said: “Hat making has been around since the beginning of time; it’s part of every culture.

“I haven’t invented the hat, I have just sort of made them sexy.”