Fashion Studies Network Symposium 

^{June 7-8, 2024 - Parsons The New School}

“Unravelling Fashion Narratives”

Selected panelist for the 2024 FSN Symposium.

“Violette Marsan, Erik Braagaard, Henri de Châtillon: 
French Milliners of New York, 1930–1968”


ABSTRACT:

Several significant contributiors to the fashions of 1930s Paris have disappeared from the record of fashion history. Among them were Violette H. Marsan (1902-1997), Erik Braagaard (1912-2004), and Henri de Châtillon (1906-1972), three French milliners who were celebrated for their innovative hats. They fled Europe the with the outbreak of World War II and settled in New York and Mexico City. They were part of the French émigrés who had found refuge in the United States and Latin America during wartime, including intellectuals, artists, and fashion designers.

Despite their talent, inventiveness, and presence in the fashion scene, the creations of Violette H. Marsan, Erik Braagaard, and Henri de Châtillon are not well represented in museum collections, and their names are no longer recalled. This investigative research will recover the respective careers of these creative individuals and chronicle their untold stories. It will shed light on their style, aspirations, and influence in New York and beyond between 1930 and 1968 - a time of democratization of fashion and greater recognition for American designers. It will also emphasize and evidence the crucial position that millinery occupied in fashion until the 1960s.