Mildred Blount
Illustration — Blount in 1946. Mildred Blount (1907–1974) was an African-American milliner best known for her creations worn by celebrities, members of high society, and featured in films such as Gone with the Wind. Her artistic philosophy was: "Make the hat fit the individual." To Blount, "hats … express something- modes, people, stories-," and over her career, she strove to put that message into her work. • Illustration — Olivia de Havilland (Left), Leslie Howard (Center) and Vivien Leigh (Right) from Gone With the Wind, 1939.
Mildred Blount
By ALICIA DIETRICH · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- Mildred Blount was born in 1907.
- Died
- Mildred Blount died in 1974.
- Occupation
- fashion designer
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Illustration — Blount in 1946. Mildred Blount (1907–1974) was an African-American milliner best known for her creations worn by celebrities, members of high society, and featured in films such as Gone with the Wind. Her artistic philosophy was: "Make the hat fit the individual." To Blount, "hats … express something- modes, people, stories-," and over her career, she strove to put that message into her work. • Illustration — Olivia de Havilland (Left), Leslie Howard (Center) and Vivien Leigh (Right) from Gone With the Wind, 1939.
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Career
Career
Many hats for the film were designed by Mildred Blount.
Blount's interest in millinery grew out of her time working at Madame Clair's Dress and Hat Shop in New York City. She and her sister, who was a dressmaker, opened their own dress and hat shop aimed at serving wealthy New Yorkers. After Blount's designs were shown at the 1939 New York World's Fair, her career took off. She was asked to design hats for the films Gone with the Wind and Easter Parade as well as for the cover of the August 1942 Ladies' Home Journal. In 1943 she received a grant from the Rosenwald Fund which was used to research the history of fashion and enabled her to create historically accurate hats which expanded her design work, which was in high demand. This also enabled her to leave the John-Frederics studio and set up her own business in Beverly Hills, California. Her clients included Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Gloria Vanderbilt, Marian Anderson, and others. • Illustration — Joan Crawford in Rain. Mildred Blount designed hats for Crawford. She was the first African American member of the Motion Pictures Costumers Union, which allowed her to work in film studios. Blount died in 1974 in Los Angeles, California.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1907
Mildred Blount born.
1974
Mildred Blount died.
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reference work
- “Mildred Blount”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
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- Wikidata, structured authority record Q19281707: Mildred Blount
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Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Mildred Blount Fashions. Ebony Magazine. 1. 6. 20–22. April 1946.
- 2.Madden, Annette. In Her Footsteps: 101 Remarkable Black Women from the Queen of Sheba to Queen Latifah. Berkeley, California: Conari Press, 2001. p. 234.
- 3.Carney Smith, Jessie. Encyclopedia of African American Business. Vol. 1. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. p. 292
- 4.Notable Rosenwald Fund Fellows.
- 5.Madden, Annette. In Her Footsteps: 101 Remarkable Black Women from the Queen of Sheba to Queen Latifah. Berkeley, California: Conari Press, 2001. p. 234.
- 6.Biography · Mildred Blount · Women of Rosenwald: Curating Social Justice through the Arts (1928-1948). womenofrosenwaldfellowship.omeka.net.
- 7.Jet. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company. Vol. 3. No. 13. August 4, 1955. p. 62
- 8.Indiana University Press. Black Women in History: An Historical Encyclopedia. 1994.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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