Should I be flattered?

I was searching the Internet the other day, trying to find some information on this fabulous vintage platter hat I just bought, and I found a blog that had about 15 pictures from my Flickr site--all hats that I've bought and photographed, shown with a few paragraphs of text this person had written, and absolutely no credit given to me. They even included a few of the wonderful photos I have of my then 13-year-old son modeling a pillbox hat (he'd be so pleased to see the image is getting wide play).

I clicked around on this blog, and eventually it did link up to my Flickr, so if someone really cared they could find out who really owned these photos. I found it vexing, though I certainly knew the risks when I started posting on the Internet, and perhaps I should be flattered that someone liked my photos and collection enough to steal it wholesale.

And I have to humbly admit, it did make a fabulous blog posting. So taking credit where credit is due, here are just a few of the hats I have for sale. See my Flickr site for many more (many of which, alas, have already sold).

Black swirl platter hat, by Modernettes

Vintage red straw hat with feather pompom

Tulle and sequin toque hat by Luci Puci

Navy blue linen cloche with veil

Black velvet bowler hat, by Flechats

Mr. John: Milliner to the Stars

There aren’t very many biopics I’d like to see made, but I just found a character who’d be perfect for one: larger than life, incredibly talented and successful, flamboyant, and yet with a touch of humor, even irony, about himself.

I’m talking (if you haven’t guessed) about Mr. John, one of the glitterati among mid-century U.S. milliners. His accomplishments, in a career spanning almost 60 years, were legendary, yet today he is largely forgotten

Mr. John--John Piocelle, or John P. John as he dubbed himself--led a sophisticated, glamorous life in Hollywood and produced some of today's most sought after vintage hats. He was also noted for work, before their split in 1948, as half of the John-Frederics duo, whose most famous hat was the straw and green velvet bonnet worn by Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. Often using pseudonyms, Mr. John designed Garbo’s hat in Mata Hari, Dietrich’s cloche in Shanghai Express, and Monroe’s headdress in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Outside of films, Mr. John designed hats for everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt to Gypsy Rose Lee, from Jaqueline Onassis to Wallace Simpson. Even my mother owned a Mr. John hat, one with a bobbing flower similar to the one in my Etsy shop (pictured above), which she assures me was considered quite fashionable. His hats often showed his sense of humor—a bannana hat with a zipper, a hat for an elephant at the Republican National Convention, an Eiffel tower hat, an airplane hat.

This sounds like enough for a great movie, but his personal life was equally flamboyant. His Central Park West apartment had a white and gold décor he described as “Louis Unrecognisable” and had free-roaming macaws, cockatoos, and parrots. Once he visited a friend wearing a floor-length gold cape and with a bird on his shoulder.

Despite all this flash and glamour, Mr. John was known primarily for his flattering, wearable hats. Even with the bobbing flower, my mother said she always felt great in her Mr. John.

Now for casting that biopic: I'm thinking maybe Robert Downey Jr?

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Much of this information came from a fascinating article by Drake Stutesman.

Moesewco's That Girl Hat

Can't you just picture Marlo Thomas wearing this with a little mini-dress and colored stockings? Or maybe Mary Tyler Moore, throwing it up into the air?

Emily of Moesewco has done it again. Her lovely little mod cloche, in a bright cherry red, features one of my funkiest little pins--a mixture of vintage buttons in chocolate brown, pink swirl, and red bakelite ball.

Emily's hats are entirely hand made--blocked using vintage wooden hat blocks and stitched by hand. So it's a good match for my vintage buttons, which hail from an era before mass production. I love seeing how artisans can take the styles and processes of the past and update them for today.