Alphonsine

French hat firm founded by the designer of the same name towards the end of the 1800s. She became the top milliner during the Belle Époque, when the hat was transformed into a triumph of feathers, egrets, and bulk. She arrived in Paris at the age of 15 and became an apprentice to Madame André. It was a good way to learn the business. She was then offered the position of manager at a smaller fashion house. She worked there for 20 years, taking every opportunity to improve herself, with travel, visits to museums, and the careful study of costume in paintings. She was such an extraordinary self-taught woman that, at the beginning of the 1900s, when fashion began to look to the remote past for its inspiration, she, better than her contemporaries, had the ability to interpret and understand that trend. In 1888 she opened her own atelier and then in 1904 moved it to rue de la Paix, at the time the height of elegance.