1950s Pink Floral Hat by Archie Eason, Size 22

Archie Eason started working as a stock boy at a department store in Jacksonville Florida in 1984. He learned the millinery trade between shifts while watching shop personnel make hats. His skill helped him to land an official job in the millinery department and, in a few years, he designed for the store under his own label.

After 14 years, he moved to New York and worked with numerous fashion designers, developing an impressive clientele of Hollywood stars. Eason produced all types of hats to fit every type of face and his most famous creation was Faye Dunaway’s beret in 1968’s Bonnie and Clyde. Customers knew immediately which hats were his due to his signature style placing a green sequin on the outside of the crown of each one.

Davisons was a regional department store chain that had its headquarters in Atlanta and stores in Georgia and South Carolina. It was founded in 1891 as the Davison Paxon Company and was sold to R H Macy & Company in 1925. The store was renamed Davisons and operated independently by Macy’s for over 60 years until the Macy’s chain eventually subsumed it in 1986.  Read more about this innovative designer on our blog.