“Talking Through My Hats” 1946 Dache, Lilly

DACHE, Lilly

[265] pp.

Coward-McCann

1946

8 3/8″ x 6″

Jacket by Constantin Alajalov

Lilly Daché (1898 – 31 December 1989) was a European-born American milliner and fashion designer.

Daché began her career in New York City as a salesperson, working at Macy’s and an independent hat shop on the Upper West Side. Daché and a co-coworker bought the independent hat store. A few months later, Daché bought out her coworker.

Daché’s major contributions to millinery were draped turbans, brimmed hats molded to the head, half hats, visored caps for war workers, cone-tipped berets, colored snoods, and romantic massed-flower shapes. Daché is reported to have said, “Glamour is what makes a man ask for your telephone number. But it also is what makes a woman ask for the name of your dressmaker.”

Despite the economic effects of the Depression and World War II, Daché’s business flourished in the 1930s and 1940s. Daché’s hats cost upwards of $20 at a time when a hat could be bought or just a few dollars, but hats were still considered a cost-effective way for a woman to update her wardrobe. She was also well known for making her visored caps and cone-tipped berets for women working in factories.

In 1937, Daché moved her entire operation to a nine-story building on East 56th Street, combining her retail sales, wholesale trade, workroom and personal space. Both the designer Halston and the hair stylist Kenneth worked for her before going into business for themselves. Estimates of Daché’s yearly production ran as high as 30,000 hats a year. By 1949, Daché was designing clothing accessories, perfume, and costume jewelry. Celebrity clients included Sonja Henie, Audrey Hepburn, Carole Lombard and Marlene Dietrich.

Not only was her brand well known, Lilly herself became famous. She was a mystery guest on a 28 August 1955 episode of the sophisticated television game show What’s My Line? (panelist Arlene Francis eventually guessed her identity). She is also referenced in the song “Tangerine” performed by the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra.

In the 1957 film, Designing Woman, Lauren Bacall’s character Marilla Brown, says she would bet a Lilly Dache hat in the voice over exposition of the background of the love story.

Daché’s books include Lilly Daché’s Glamour Book (1956) and her autobiography, Talking through My Hats (1946).

When Dache retired in 1968, Loretta Young bought her last thirty hats.

Lilly Daché died in Louvecienne, France at the age of 91 in 1989.