13 “A House That Is Made of Hats”

On 13 September 1937, milliner Lilly Daché opened a building that she would later characterize as “a house that is made of hats” (Daché 1946: 5). Located at 78 East 56^th Street in New York City, the building housed her retail and wholesale businesses, workrooms for millinery manufacturing and perfume bottling, rental space for a hairdresser, a furrier, and Daché's own home occupying the duplex penthouse (Daché 1946: 179). Daché wrote that “this building of chromium and pink satin and mirrors, of leopard-skins and gold, is a sort of showcase for myself as well as for my hats“ (1946: 9). The interiors of the building served multiple purposes: they elevated the purchase of millinery into an experience of fantasy, they were a repository for works of art that inspired Daché designs and, most of all, they promoted the image of the designer herself.