Hat designer to the stars, Philip Treacy, talks Laura Davis through his exhibition at Tate Liverpool

PHILIP TREACY is fascinated by people – beauties, oddities, photographers so unassuming he mistakes them for cleaners, audacious artists who paint stacks of soup cans.

Every hat he creates is inspired by the person who will eventually wear it and every piece of art he has chosen while curating his new Tate Liverpool exhibition has an intriguing character behind it.

Among the supermodels, screen sirens and eccentrics, one person stands out more than most – former Tatler editor Isabella Blow.

Visitors to the gallery are immediately confronted by her portrait, taken by fashion photographer Stephen Meisel, displayed in an elaborate gilt frame.

“She invented me – in a round about way,” announces the 44-year-old Irish milliner, listing the models and designers Blow “discovered”, including Sophie Dahl and Alexander McQueen.

She discovered the latter at Central St Martins, purchasing his entire graduate collection for £5,000 and paying it off in weekly instalments of £100 by taking him to a cash machine.