Mr John Brown Hat - Etsy。I purchased this 15 years ago in a thrift shop in South Carolina. It was locked in a case atop a pedestal, I still remember. I thought it was gorgeous. It made/makes me think of Audry Hepburn. A Mr. John Sophisticate New York vintage wide-brimmed hat. I wore it to Mother\'s Day Tea at the Ritz. Per Bellatory.com: In the 1950s, Mr. John was as famous for hats as Christian Dior was for haute couture. Mr. John hats were synonymous with elegance, style, and glamour. The man and his hats reached the apex of the fashion world. Nobody else even came close to him. Hollywood studios paid him design hats for such notables as Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, and Vivien Leigh. Society matrons swooned over him, and he was a major celebrity on his own. In the 1950s, a Mr. John hat was de rigeur not just in Hollywood films, but also on fashion runways and in the watering holes frequented by high society in New York and Palm Beach. Mr. John\'s client list included such luminaries as the Duchess of Windsor, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Gloria Swanson, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Lauren Bacall. His hats were treasured possessions not just of the rich and famous, but also of upwardly mobile, fashion-forward women everywhere. At his peak, he employed 150 people and produced 16,000 hats a year under several different labels. In short, he was a household name and one of the most popular milliners who ever lived.