Running a hugely successful hatmaking studio in London between the 1930s and the 1970s, his business supplied both major stores throughout Europe, the US and Australia and hats for private clients such as Greta Garbo and Wallis Simpson.

Otto Lucas was born in Germany and, after a spell learning millinery in Paris and Berlin, he moved to London and opened his own salon in Bond Street, Mayfair in 1932.

[2] Lucas was a skilled businessman and his workroom grew to immense proportions; a 1958 British Pathé film Heady Stuff – featuring a walk on role for top model Barbara Goalen – shows a small army of women working in the back of his Bond Street salon.

For example, in 1953, he supplied all the hats for a fashion show in St Moritz organised by export magazine The Ambassador to showcase designs by, among others, Norman Hartnell, Digby Morton and Victor Stiebel.

[10] Lucas was responsible for training many future milliners – notably leading hatmakers to the Queen, Frederick Fox and Philip Somerville, both of whom completed apprenticeships at his studio.