Photo By Gail

Endearingly known as Chicago’s Mad Hatter, Benjamin Green-Field established the Bes-Ben label with with his sister, Bessie Friedlander in 1919. Green-Field’s designs were equal parts fantasy and practicality; their chic, relativity compact forms were designed to work in concert with the costly coiffures of the period. The year 1941 is regarded as a turning point in his career; the material restrictions that were imposed during World War II roused new levels of creativity in his work and introduced what would become a lasting devotion to crafting whimsical conversational pieces like this Lobster Hat circa 1946.

Detail

Photographed as part of the exhibit In Pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier Collection, on view through May 17th, 2020 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.