Miller Christy, the founder of the Christy Dynasty, was born at Ormiston Lodge, Haddington, Scotland.
Christys' Heritage
Miller Christy travelled South on March 1st 1773 and in partnership with fellow Quaker, Joseph Storrs, set up a hat manufacturers in Whitehart Court, London.
Miller Christy with 3 other partners bought Underbank Hall and opened The Stockport and East Cheshire Bank – now part of the National Westminster Bank. The Stockport works were taken over completely by the Christy family, and while the London centre focussed on silk hats, the Stockport works concentrated on the making of wool and fur felt hats.
Business was booming! The process for making hats, caps and helmets had been mechanised and Christys supplied hats to markets all over the world. Following his apprenticeship to a Hatter in Edinburgh, Miller Christy had created a company that would survive for generations, outliving thousands of hat makers across the former British Empire: by 1864 for example there were 53 hatting firms in Stockport alone. Throughout hundreds of years, the factory was still managed by direct descendants of the founder of the Firm. In 1876 there was the First Registration of the Christys’ London Trademark and with business expanding to foreign lands, safeguarding the insignia in all its forms became vital. In 1887 the partnership was converted into a Limited Liability Company.
After the Second World War, Post War hats made a major comeback and a good hat marked a gentleman, and indeed, men returning from the allied forces were obliged to wear a hat for a certain time as part of their demobilisation process.
With Princess Diana’s fancy for wearing a good hat; the fashion for a Christy Classic was relaunched with tremendous success.
The Christy Product was largely aimed at affluent men and women partaking in country sports. Christys’ still supplies its fine Equestrian hats worldwide.
Christys’ won a tender to become a supplier of headwear to the Palace.
Tony Merenda joined as Creative Director and creator of the Christys' Crown Collection. Giving a fashion forward edge to the celebrities of young Hollywood and the music scene is a natural fit for Merenda whose innovation and boundless energy are evident in the product. The Crown Collection is a natural fusion of advanced fashion styling and Christys' timeless British Tradition.
Christys' launch their new transactional Website.
Christys' appoint Fearnhurst PR to enhance the profile of Christys' Headwear across the UK fashion and consumer press, and help launch the new Fashion Diffusion collection, Christys' Crown.
