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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 Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...
department store, and from there started her own hat business. She was at the peak of her business career in the 1930s and 1940s. Her contributions to millinery were well-known custom-designed fashion hats for wealthy women, celebrities, socialites, and movie stars. Her hats cost about ten times the average cost of a lady's hat. Her main hat business was in New York City with branches in Paris. Later in her career she expanded her fashion line to include dresses, perfume, and jewelry.


Biography

Daché was born in France and immigrated to the United States in 1924, arriving on September 13. She moved to New York City and got a job at the Bonnet Shop. Daché bought out her friend's share within a year and owned the entire business. Daché's contributions to millinery were wrapped around
turban A turban (from Persian language, Persian دولبند‌, ''dolband''; via Middle French ''turbant'') is a type of headwear based on cloth winding. Featuring many variations, it is worn as customary headwear by people of various cultures. Commun ...
s, custom-fitted hats, brimmed half hats, hat caps with visors, cone-tipped
beret A beret ( , ; ; ; ) is a soft, round, flat-crowned cap made of hand-knitted wool, crocheted cotton, wool felt, or acrylic fibre. Mass production of berets began in the 19th century in Southern France and the north of History of Spain (1808 ...
s, loose-fitting colored hairnets, and decorative flower-shaped hats. Daché said that glamour made a man ask for the wearer's telephone number and it also made a woman ask for the name of the wearer's
tailor A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...
. Her business flourished in spite of the Great Depression and World War II. Her hats cost upwards of $20 to $80 at a time when a decent hat could be bought for just a tenth of that. Daché worked with Hollywood costume designer
Travis Banton Travis Banton (August 18, 1894 – February 2, 1958) was an American costume designer. He is perhaps best known for his long collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich and director Josef von Sternberg. He is generally considered one of the ...
to provide hats. Dache became a celebrity when she was a guest on a 1955 episode of the television game show ''
What's My Line? ''What's My Line?'' is a Panel show, panel game show that originally ran in the United States, between 1950 and 1967, on CBS, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent American revivals. The game uses celebrity panelists ...
''. Panelist
Arlene Francis Arlene Francis (born Arline Francis Kazanjian; October 20, 1907 – May 31, 2001) was an American game show panelist, actress, radio and television talk show host. She is best known for her long-running role as a panelist on the television game ...
guessed her mystery identity. She is referenced in the song "
Tangerine The tangerine is a type of citrus fruit that is orange in colour, that is considered either a variety of the mandarin orange (''Citrus reticulata''), or a closely related species, under the name ''Citrus tangerina'', or yet as a hybrid (''Citr ...
" performed by the
Jimmy Dorsey James Francis Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards " I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary Peopl ...
orchestra as the female singer sings in the second course that Tangerine is all they speak of with darkened eyelashes and a fashion hat by Daché. Daché begain designing swagger hats in 1948. She also designed clothing, cosmetics, jewelry and other accessories. She had business branches for these products in Paris. Some of her custom hats are displayed at New York's Metropolitan Museum. Daché retired in 1968 after selling her last hats to actress
Loretta Young Loretta Young (born Gretchen Michaela Young; January 6, 1913 – August 12, 2000) was an American actress. Starting as a child, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1989. She received numerous honors including an Academy Awards ...
. She died on December 31, 1989, in Louveciennes, France.


Personal life

In 1931, Daché married French-born Jean Despres who was an executive at the large cosmetics and fragrance company, Coty. She had a daughter, Suzanne. In her final years, she spent time in
Delray Beach, Florida Delray Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population of Delray Beach as of April 1, 2020, was 66,846 according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 United States Census. Located in the Miami metropolitan area, De ...
. She also spent time in New York City and Meudon, France.


Works


Talking Through My Hats (1946)Glamour Book (1956)


Awards

*
Neiman Marcus Fashion Award The Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion was a yearly award created in 1938 by Carrie Marcus Neiman and Stanley Marcus. Unlike the Coty Award, it was not limited to American-based fashion designers. Recipients of th ...
(1940) * Coty American Fashion Critics Award (1943)


References


Sources

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Further reading

* * * * * ** {{DEFAULTSORT:Dache, Lilly 1890s births 1989 deaths American milliners French milliners American fashion designers American women fashion designers French fashion designers French women fashion designers French emigrants to the United States 20th-century American businesswomen 20th-century American businesspeople