[David Redhead] So tell me about your fabulous hat.

[Erin O’Connor] Oh some bloke called Stephen Jones made it I don’t know, he’s up and coming, maybe he’ll make it, maybe he won’t, no. I thought, let’s go back to our past which we did and one of my favourite memories with Stephen is of him fitting a hat on me and I brought to life the memory of Madame Dior, as in Christian Dior, the dead mother. So I’m wearing a wonderful combination of grey, lilac and black this evening just to lift the tone.

[David Redhead] Whose frock are you wearing?

[Erin O’Connor] Well I thought if I was going to go Stephen Jones I had to go Vivienne Westwood. And you know you don’t get to rock up to the V&A, the most beautiful institution in the world very often so I thought drama and theatre.

[David Redhead] Is it a good time for an exhibition about hats?

[Erin O’Connor] It’s all about hats, you know if you can’t do fashion and you don’t accept fashion as art, think hats. They’re sculptural, they’re designed, they have precision and they have personality.