Monsieur Gilles

Monsieur Gilles is a very flighty, Belgian hat maker. He aided the professional development of De Barentzen and Rocco, whom he discovered in Ischia and with whom he launched Marchio Barocco, which later became the Maison Rocco Barocco. Despite his great creativity as a milliner, he has always preferred to stay out of the limelight. At the end of 2000, the most important boutiques in Rome on Via Borgognona displayed some of the creations of Gilles Stenglé, alias Monsieur Gilles, including examples from the private collection of Rocco Barocco, whose career was launched in part due to the assistance of the French milliner. Red hats with roosters’ feathers and felt hats decorated with marabou feathers: regardless of whether the designs were from the 1960s or the present, the whole collection is imbued with a surprising freshness and modernity.