Remember the day Easter 1944 - Whitman's Chocolates

Sally Victor (née Josephs; February 23, 1905 – May 14, 1977) was a prominent American

milliner Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of ...

from the late 1920s through the 1960s. Her designs were popular with Hollywood actresses such as

Irene Dunne Irene Dunne (born Irene Marie Dunn; December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an American actress who appeared in films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best known for her comedic roles, though she performed in films of other gen ...

, Helen Hayes, and

Merle Oberon Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson; 19 February 191123 November 1979) was a British actress who began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in ''The Private Life of Henry VIII'' (1933). After her success in ''The Scarle ...

, as well as First Ladies

Mamie Eisenhower Mary Geneva "Mamie" Eisenhower (; November 14, 1896 – November 1, 1979) was the first lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961 as the wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Born in Boone, Iowa, she was raised in a wealthy household i ...

and Jacqueline Kennedy, and Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

Early life

Sally Josephs was born in

Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 U.S. census, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Wyoming V ...

. She took an interest in

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

at age eight, when her family moved to New York where her aunt had a

millinery Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of g ...

shop. As she reflected in a 1949 interview,

Career

At 18 she began working in the millinery department of

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

. Within a year she had become assistant millinery buyer, and three years later she was hired as chief millinery buyer at Bamberger's department store in Newark. After marrying millinery wholesaler Sergiu F. Victor in 1927, she gave birth to a son, Richard, and briefly retired. However she soon returned to work and became the head designer of Victor's firm, Serge. In 1934 she established a fashion label under her own name, with a millinery salon on East 53rd Street in New York. Her hats began to be sold in high-profile stores, including

Lord & Taylor Lord & Taylor was the oldest brick and mortar department store in the United States, in business from 1826 to 2020. The brand was purchased during former owner Le Tote's 2020 liquidation bankruptcy and relaunched by new owner, Saadia Group, as ...

on Fifth Avenue. '' Fortune'' compared her work with that of

Lilly Daché Lilly Daché ( 1892 – 31 December 1989) was a French-born American milliner and fashion merchandiser. She started her career in a small bonnet shop, advanced to being a sales lady at Macy's department store, and from there started her own ha ...

and

Mr. John John P. John (14 March 1902 – 25 June 1993) was an American milliner. According to the New York Times, "in the 1940s and 1950s, the name Mr. John was as famous in the world of hats as Christian Dior was in the realm of haute couture". Born ...

. Victor was regarded as an innovator, and her hats remained popular through her retirement in 1967. Along with Lilly Daché and Mr. John, she is seen as one of the most prominent milliners of the period. She died at Doctors Hospital in New York on May 14, 1977.

Style

Sally Victor drew inspiration from many diverse sources, including

Native American art Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America and North America, which includes ...

, Chinese lanterns,

Japanese armor Scholars agree that Japanese armour first appeared in the 4th century, with the discovery of the cuirass and basic helmets in graves. During the ''Heian period'' (794-1185), the unique Japanese samurai armour '' ō-yoroi'' and ''dō-maru'' appe ...

, and the works of

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...

, Piet Mondrian,

Rogier van der Weyden Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...

, and

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

. She was innovative in introducing synthetic materials into her hats alongside traditional ones. Some of her popular product lines included "baby bonnets", "Pompadour hats", "Grecian pillboxes", "honey hives", and "Tudor tops". Designs intended for the mass market were sold through a subsidiary named Sally V. Victor designed several hats for First Lady

, including one known as the "Airwave" which she wore at her husband Dwight's inauguration in 1953. Former First Lady

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

also wore Sally Victor hats in the 1950s. Victor later created designs for Jacqueline Kennedy. Throughout her career, Sally Victor emphasized making hats which were attractive, rather than being chic or avant-garde.

Awards

* 1943 Coty Awards – Special Award for Millinery Fashion Inspiration (a patriotic collaboration of John-Frederics,

and Sally Victor) * 1944 Coty Awards – Special Award for millinery * 1956 Coty Awards – Winnie (womenswear) award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Victor, Sally 1905 births 1977 deaths American fashion designers American women fashion designers American milliners People from Scranton, Pennsylvania 20th-century American businesswomen 20th-century American businesspeople