Philip Treacy's interviews are usually just as amusing as his hats (wouldn't it be so ironic if he were boring?), and there's a nice long Q&A with him in the Guardian today. He discusses the usual suspects like Isabella Blow, Princess Beatrice, and Lady Gaga, who plans to intern for him as soon as her schedule permits. Here are some highlights:

On a nineteenth-century Russian sleigh that he owns:

I bought it from Sotheby's — it is my Ferrari.

On giving 25 hats to Elizabeth Taylor for free:

I didn't know whether I was going to be dealing with a very tricky person but she was a sweetheart. I thought it would be entertaining to do a hat show on her in her room — because, after all, she is an old lady. I tried 25 hats on her. She kept saying: "Which hat can I have"? And at the end I said: "You can have them all." I gave her 25 hats. She said: "I must do something for you in return." But I'd got my return just by hanging out with her.

More on that hat he made for Princess Beatrice:

I felt hurt for her. She is only 22 and there was a little bit of bullying going on. I didn't give a fuck about 140,000 bloggers. In the future, we'll look back and think she looked wild.

On Lady Gaga being his intern:

She plans to. She's already visited me. This is what happened: one Monday morning, four burly bodyguards arrived — Lady Gaga's security team — to check out the security of the building. I looked at them as if to say: what?! Who is going to take a pot shot at Lady Gaga?

Oh his first time meeting the Queen:

When you meet the Queen, you are not supposed to ask questions. But I thought: what the hell. So I looked her in the eye and said: "Ma'am, do you enjoy wearing hats?" And she stood back and said: "It is part of the uniform."

Alas, no mention of plumbers this time.

Philip Treacy: 'I like hats that make the heart beat faster' [Guardian UK]