#millinary

A woman in Times Square, 1947.

Carmen and Mr John

Carmen Dell’Orefice modelling hats by celebrity milliner, Mr John of New York

Carmen Dell’Orefice was discovered in New York at the age of thirteen, modelled for Salvador Dali at fourteen, and by the time she was sixteen, in 1947, made her first appearance on the cover of American Vogue. The photographer Erwin Blumenfeld then introduced her to Eileen Ford and pronounced her ‘a star’. The young model appeared on the cover of Vogue three more times before travelling to Australia for the David Jones American Fashion Parade in August 1950. In 1953-56 she was modelling for celebrity milliner, Mr John of New York.

Mr John (aka John. P. John, 1902-1993), self-proclaimed ‘Emperor of Fashion’, created hats for the rich and famous for almost sixty years. His clients included Wallis Simpson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jacqueline Onassis, Princess Grace of Monaco, Mrs Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney and the Australian soprano, Marjorie Lawrence. His hats appeared in Hollywood films, worn by Greta Garbo in Mata Hari (1931), Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932), Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939) and Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).

Celebrating all things hat for this month’s #ArchivesHashtagParty, we want to share with you a 1954 kinescope of a “Person to Person” episode featuring world-famous milliner, Lilly Daché, preserved in our Peabody Awards archives. Perfect for #ArchivesTipOfTheHat!

This was the show hosted by Edward R. Murrow where he would converse with famous people in their homes while he sat smoking cigarettes and interviewing them from a tv studio in New York.

The program was live via microwave link to the network, and a lot of cameras, lights, and other bulky and expensive cameras and equipment were installed at the subject’s home in the days ahead of the show, all to make it look easy and effortless to visit a celebrity at home. Believe us, it wasn’t easy! Today, all you need is a computer with a camera to chat with celebs in their homes in online chats.

Murrow’s visit with the talented and elegant Daché took place 67 years ago on April 16, 1954 from her apartment in New York (the top floors of a building she had built), where she was joined by her husband, Jean Despres, Executive VP at Coty cosmetics/fragrances.  She highlights some African chieftans’ headwear  which have inspired her designs:

Our record for the program in the Peabody Awards Archives is here:  http://dbs.galib.uga.edu/cgi-bin/parc.cgi?userid=galileo&query=id:1954_54009_nwt_1  and if you will click on the blue highlighted link in that record, it will take you to Kaltura to watch the program. The first interview is with Archbishop Richard Cushing of Boston (whose hat is a Biretta, btw). Lilly Dache’s interview begins at the 18:40 mark.

Daché came to the U.S. from France in 1919 with $13 in her pocket and rose from millinery saleswoman to shop owner to designer and head of her own company. She was wildly successful from the 1930s through the 1950s. Presidents’ wives, movie stars, businesswomen, and housewives all wore her hats.  Some of those hats are preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Fashion Institute of Technology,

Read all about Daché in her entertaining autobiography, Talking through My Hats (1946), available at a library near you.