A retro hat in a tiny shop on a Montmartre side street.
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In Paris, the period of roughly the late 19th to early 20th century is often called the golden age of millinery. Historians place it within the Belle Époque (1870-1914) when hats were an essential part of daily dress, and Paris the global center of fashion. A well-dressed Parisienne might change hats multiple times depending on her activities, which is why the trade flourished. Hats weren’t just accessories: they signaled class, occasion, and even time of day. Modistes specialized in high-fashion women's attire that often included custom dresses, gowns, and especially elaborate hats, bonnets, and trimmings.
Today chapellerie refers more broadly to hatmaking, the hat trade or a hat shop, and back in the day several hundred to over a thousand of these shops might have been operating at once, from small independent workshops to prestigious houses. Entire districts were dense with these shops and catered to both locals and international clients. But gradually lifestyles changed and demand dwindled, and with it the industry, as many skilled hatmakers went on to work with grand fashion houses. - BPJ
