CROWNED

CROWNED is the authorised biography of Monika Perlińska, the master milliner behind Maria Monica London. It is the story of a Polish girl who arrived in London with £300 and a trade learned the old way, and spent the next twenty years inside the most celebrated ateliers in British millinery, making hats for the royal family and for names from film and music, first through five years in Philip Treacy's atelier, where she became his principal designer, then through seven years as head milliner at Jane Taylor. Now her own name is above the door, and the book tells how she got there.

The story the hats were hiding

For most of her career Monika's work appeared under other people's labels. The pieces were photographed on the most important heads in the country while the maker stayed invisible. CROWNED follows the whole arc: the school of millinery in Poland, the atelier with a century of tradition where she refined the craft, the leap to London, the workrooms, the royal commissions and the decision, around thirty-five years in, to found her own house.

Be first to read it

The book is being written now, with Monika's full cooperation and her own archive. The private list hears everything first, including publication news. Join it at the foot of any page, and in the meantime meet the designer or see what her hands make.

Enquire if you are a publisher, an editor or a documentary maker who wants to talk about the story.