Royal Connection to Urana, NSW, sparks invitation to their royaI highnesses to visit the Frederick fox lvo hat exhibition -The boy from the Australian bush at buckingham palace

The Urana Progress Association has invited HRH King Charles III and Queen Camilla to visit the Urana Courthouse Museum, New South Wales, to view the Frederick Fox LVO* Exhibition featuring approximately 60 hats and personal correspondence including from the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Frederick Fox was born in Urana in 1931, one of nine children in our small town in rural New South Wales. He designed more than 350 hats for Queen Elizabeth II over a 35-year period. Frederick also designed for other members of the British Royal Family namely Diana, Princess of Wales, notably the flying-saucer shaped hats; Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother; Princess Alice. With other famous clients such as Hillary Clinton and Joan Collins. He is credited for the egg-shaped, white leather Moon Shuttle Stewardess helmets of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has advised that our invitation has been forwarded to Buckingham Palace.

Frederick received a lieutenancy of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) in 1999 for distinguished personal service to a sovereign and was named Britain’s Australian of the Year in 2013 for his success in an international career in design.

Frederick’s millinery career began when he was 10 years of age and decided to ‘re-create’ his mother’s and sisters’ hats worn to church.  His business grew from that to ‘re-creating’ bridal hats during the war when money and embellishments were in short supply. One of the world’s most innovative designers and perhaps Australia’s greatest contributor to the golden age of millinery fashion. Frederick Fox passed away in 2013, and our Museum Exhibition is his legacy.