The Little Milliners 1882

Curator: Here we have Edgar Degas’ “The Little Milliners,” completed around 1882. It's rendered in pastel. What strikes you initially? Editor: There is such a delicate vulnerability radiating from these women. The details are sharp and poignant in their depiction. I am also captured by the hats as they symbolize identity, status, dreams. Curator: Indeed. And considering that Degas repeatedly represented labor in his works, focusing here on these milliners highlights the economic realities facing women at the time, and their role in shaping fashion trends and satisfying bourgeois consumers. The soft, diffused quality of the pastel, despite being industrial merchandise, also feels significant when looking at female labor. Editor: The hats definitely become vessels brimming with societal meaning. We see in their embellishments—flowers, ribbons, and feathers—a language of status, beauty, and aspiration. These women are both creators and purveyors of symbols, not simply laborers. The plumed hat contrasts so fiercely against their dull attire and backdrop. Curator: But how much agency do they have over the design, the means of production and what ultimately gets sold? These hats weren’t simply signs of wealth and glamour, but objects made in very specific material conditions and by the hands of working women whose livelihoods depended on them. Degas has also captured their tools carefully on the lower section of the canvas as to reinforce their materiality. Editor: A great point, which complicates our reading. Perhaps the hats symbolize the aspirational facade, while the milliners themselves are relegated to a silent background in society despite constructing this dream for the upper class. Curator: Exactly! The striped pattern in the back emphasizes flatness and reminds us of their mundane realities and long hours of work and manufacturing objects which many other women would use for escapism from daily toil. Editor: Reflecting on that tension certainly enriches our understanding. This makes me realize that while hats communicate one message to society as objects, it may be entirely different when viewed in their process and method of production. Curator: It’s through this contrast that Degas prompts us to consider the intricate link of materials, social strata, work and labor within modern Paris and a fleeting symbol of Parisian class. Editor: It serves as an allegory and reminder that appearances aren't always what they seem.