Textile Society of America Symposium 

^{November 12-14, 2024 - Online}

“Shifts and Strands:
Rethinking the Possibilities and Potentials of Textiles”

Selected panelist for the upcoming 2024 TSA Symposium.

“Henri de Châtillon (1906-1972): A French Milliner in Mexico City”


ABSTRACT:

Henri Frank Hutchinson, alias Henri de Châtillon (1906-1972), was a celebrated French milliner and designer known for his innovative hats, accessories, and dresses from the 1930s through the 1960s. Yet his pioneering contributions to Paris fashions and his efforts to connect the Americas through fashion have been largely forgotten. With the outbreak of World War II, de Châtillon fled his native France and settled in Mexico City in 1942, where he opened a millinery salon on the city's modern grand boulevard, Paseo de la Reforma. He was part of the wave of French émigrés (immigrants), including intellectuals, artists, and fashion designers, who found refuge in the United States and Latin America during the war.

Throughout his career, de Châtillon valued the French Haute Couture heritage while championing local Mexican fashions and artisanal craftsmanship. He aspired to establish "an international style based on Mexican motifs" that would parallel the leading fashions of Paris and New York. His creations integrated materials, shapes, and colors inspired by native Mexican aesthetics, such as various palm fibers from the Yucatan. He even experimented with glazed corn tortillas during the war years when felt fabric became scarce. This paper seeks to chronicle Henri de Châtillon’s career and highlight the singularity of his inventive creations and use of materials, thereby restoring the place of forgotten designers such as him in fashion history.