With his hats atop the heads of seven Vogue cover models in the 1940s alone, and conveyances of his brilliance on the lips of countless middle class patrons worldwide for the better part of thirty years, John P. John could be dubbed the master of mid–twentieth–century millinery. Contemporaries like Lilly Daché admired his adherence to the beauty and definition of planar shape without the complexities of overwrought surface ornamentation. Mr. John's collections often featured subtle, yet intuitive, art and historical stylistic references, allowing his snoods, cloches, and romantic picture hats a certain fluidity with the garments of Dior, Saint Laurent, and James Galanos.With a reductivist eye and a theatrical sensibility, Mr. John here invites the wearer into a world of timeless classicism. With Eden as his muse, the milliner allows his interpretation of the laureate's cap.
