Hat

The millinery partnership of John-Frederics was one of the most influential American makers of women’s hats during the 1930s and 40s. In addition to creating for celebrities and socialites of the day—including Joan Crawford, Doris Duke, and Greta Garbo—the salon also became involved in costume design for film. Perhaps their most famous commission was for the Hollywood interpretation of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind (1939). In one of its key scenes character Scarlett O’Hara (played by actress Vivien Leigh) fashions a hat and gown from curtains in preparation to charm a suitor and ask for financial assistance. Scarlett’s making do with what was available during wartime resonated with American society in the 1940s, when, to compensate for wartime shortages, offbeat materials were routinely appropriated for fashionable accessories. Commercial replicas such as this one were subsequently reproduced by a wholesaler who licensed the rights to reproduce Gone with the Wind hat styles under the John Frederics, Inc. label.

Though the costume designer Walter Plunkett received the sole credit for the original creation, and neither the millinery salon or their team received attribution for their contributions to Gone with the Wind, in recent years historians have unearthed the critical role that the milliner Mildred Eliza Blount (American, 1902–1974) played in designing and producing many hats that were featured in the film. Not only was Blount a critical and unsung member of the John-Frederics studio, but she was an independently talented milliner who designed custom hats and bridal designs throughout her lifetime—for clients including Mae Walker Robinson, Gloria Vanderbilt, and A’Lelia Walker among others—and went on to create for many other filmic productions such as Back Street, Gigi, and Easter Parade.