Vanilla Beane, is a milliner, or hatmaker, known for her custom-made pieces adorned by civil rights activist Dorothy Height.

VANILLA BEANE, THE GIFTED MILLINER
Her 100th Birthday was Friday September 13, 2019!

Vanilla Beane, is a milliner, or hatmaker, known for her custom-made pieces adorned by civil rights activist Dorothy Height.

Born Vanilla Powell in Wilson, N.C., she was the youngest of seven. According to birth records, Vanilla Powell was born in 1919 in Wilson County to James and Martha Hagans Powell. Her father, born about 1876, was the son of Ichabod and Mary Ann Lassiter Powell. (Mary Ann’s parents were Silas and Orpha Simpson Lassiter.) Her mother Martha was the daughter of Charles and Charity Thomas Hagans.

She moved to Washington, D.C. in 1942 where she met her husband, Willie Beane, whose last name yielded the unexpected combination with her first name. (She says she didn’t even think about it until someone remarked on it about a year after the wedding.)
Beane became interested in hats when she was working as an elevator operator in a downtown building that housed Washington Millinery Supply. She liked to sew and would often stop in the shop to look around and pick up materials. In 1955, she was hired as a seamstress.

“She had very much talent, but she didn’t have the design know-how in those days,” recalled Richard Dietrick Sr., the owner of Washington Millinery Supply. “She picked it up very quickly.”

Beane eventually left the company and went to work as a mail clerk for the General Services Administration. But hatmaking continued to be her passion: She’d make them at home and sell them at hat parties. Dietrick eventually decided to move Washington Millinery closer to his home in Maryland and focus on bridal headpieces and veils.

“You girls quit wearing hats, more or less,” said Dietrick, 85.
But hat fashion lived on in the African-American community, particularly in the churches, and Beane bought much of the store’s remaining inventory.

“Then I had to find a place to put it,” Beane said. After retiring from the government, she opened her own shop on Third Street.

The store next door is Lovely Lady Boutique, where Height bought many of her clothes. She’d stop by Beane’s to get a matching hat. Lovely Lady’s owner, Ethel Sanders, said Beane has a keen eye for fashion and manages to make her hats up-to-date.

“There are not very many milliners around, and she happens to be one of the best,” Sanders said.
Beane, whose custom-made creations can run up to $500, said she believes hats are making a small comeback, thanks in part to church-sponsored teas and the attention paid to Height toward the end of her life and around her funeral. When Beane is not busy working on an order for a customer, she experiments with new designs for herself.

“It’s hard for me to find a hat that suits me because I don’t like too large a hat,” Beane said. “I’m very conservative.”

While working in the downtown Washington Millinery Supply as a seamstress in the 50s, she sharpened her skills into a craft. After leaving the company, Beane continued to passionately make hats while working as a mail clerk for the General Services Administration. In 1979, she opened Beane Millinery & Bridal Supplies on Third Street in Northwest Washington to serve the African American community that kept the tradition of ornate hats alive, especially in the church.

The 106 year-old milliner paid a visit to the the National Museum of African American History and Culture:on it's Grand Opening day. You can see an example of a millinery shop in their Power of Place exhibition on the fourth floor.

*Photo of Mrs Vanilla Beane as young women, Photo courtesy of granddaughter Jeni Hansen.

Source: The National Museum of African American History and Culture:

Source: https://thegrio.com/.../dorothy-heights-hatmaker-still.../

Source:
Celebrated D.C. Milliner Marks 90th Birthday With Friends, Hats
By Hamil R. Harris-Washington Post Staff Writer-Sunday, September 20, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.../09/19/AR2009091902365.html

Source: https://afamwilsonnc.com/.../snaps-no-55-vanilla.../...