Simone Mirman

Simone Mirman (1912–2008) was a Paris-born milliner based in London, chiefly known for her designs for the British royal family.

Early life Simone Parmentier was born in Paris on 18 May 1912 to middle-class Catholic parents.

Simone had an apprenticeship with Rose Valois, one of the leading Parisian milliners of the 1920s and 1930s, where she developed her talent for designing hats to suit the trickiest faces, considering her first success to be a design which worked for her mother's features. She headed the hat department of Schiaparelli's London branch in Upper Grosvenor Street, Mayfair until it closed down at the outbreak of war in 1939.

Business During the Second World War the newly-wed, impoverished Mirmans lived in a small attic on Spring Street in Paddington. Each morning, they hid the evidence of their real life and transformed the attic into a millinery salon for Simone to serve customers seeking off-ration hats. It was through Serge Mirman that Dior's licensed hosiery became established upon the London retail scene. Serge also helped his wife design, and he was probably responsible for the more outlandish and eccentric Mirman hats that attracted the attention of the press.

In 1978 she also designed another women's cap for the Metropolitan Police, this time with a soft top, but its impracticality led to its rapidly gaining the nicknames 'butcher's boy' or 'Smurf' and it was withdrawn 18 months later. After Serge died in 1980, Simone Mirman closed down her Belgravia salon, and ran a small shop for leather goods and simple headgear with the assistance of her daughter, Sophie Mirman. Sophie went on to found Sock Shop and the childrenswear boutique Trotters. In 2003 several Mirman hats were displayed alongside clothes worn by the Queen in an exhibition at the Kensington Palace State Apartments.

Retirement and death Simone Mirman retired in 1990 and returned to France, where she took up oil painting as a hobby until losing her eyesight. She died in 2008 at the age of 96.

Simone Mirman quote "If your features are even, you can wear a small hat even though your face is large. A small woman can wear a big hat in spite of all the warnings against it; but it must be in proportion to her size. She should never try to wear a hat to make her look taller. She'll fool no one about her size that way."