Mildred Blount

Mildred Blount (1907-1974) was an American milliner of African descent who rose from orphanhood to become one of the most celebrated hat designers of Hollywood's golden age. Orphaned before about the age of two, she made her own way from childhood, and by the 1920s she was an independent young woman in New York City. Working as an errand girl at Madame Clair's Dress and Hat Shop while earning her high-school diploma through evening classes, she discovered a gift for millinery that would carry her far beyond those modest beginnings.

Her talent announced itself early. At seventeen, and without any formal training, she was commissioned to create the bridesmaids' headpieces for a prominent New York society wedding tied to the family of Madam C.J. Walker. In time she joined the John Frederics salon, where over some thirteen years she designed hats for major films, most famously the elaborate period bonnets of Gone with the Wind (1939). The house took credit for her work, leaving her name off the creations that helped define the film's look.

In 1943 Blount won a Rosenwald Fund fellowship, which supported her study of fashion history and her exquisite miniature period hats, made as both teaching aids and works of art. She became the first African American member of the Motion Pictures Costumers Union, and after moving to Los Angeles she opened her own business and earned the title "milliner to the stars." Her clients included Marian Anderson, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, and Gloria Vanderbilt.

Mildred Blount died in Los Angeles in 1974, having broken barriers that had never before yielded to a Black woman in her craft. We honor her artistry, her perseverance against erasure, and the dignity she wore as gracefully as the hats she made.