Flora McLean

Royal College of Art / Senior Lecturer Footwear and Accessories

Flora McLean is Senior lecturer in footwear accessories millinery and eyewear at the Royal College of Art in London.  She has been running her own accessory label House of Flora since 1996. She is a maker and produces hats, jewellery and eyewear lines all handmade in the UK. Seen as wearable art, the pieces feature in regular cool editorials across the world. Beyoncé wore the PVC beret on the front cover of the Face magazine 2004. Regular high-end collaborations with Haute Couture and ready to wear designers like Givenchy couture, Bill Blass, Diane Von Furstenberg as well as making hats for Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Kelis and more recently American neo soul singer and style guru Erykah Badu.

A loyal following in the fashion world, across Europe and Asia. Her fashion films have been shown on SHOWstudio and also been part of Diane Pernets film festival in Paris. Floras hats have been celebrated since she won the Jerwood makers prize 2010. The PVC beret was exhibited in The Victoria and Albert museum in London as part of the Anthology of Hats exhibition with Millinery giant Stephen Jones. Her research focus straddles multi-sensory approaches to design and creativity and her interest in sound/ music and vibrational frequencies are now merging with her physical design work.