Manny's Millinery was founded in 1948 by my father, E. Manny. Although the industry began its decline in the 40's, there was a great hustle and bustle in the millinery district of New York City. I remember those days, as my father used to bring me into work sometimes on a Saturday. The shelves, bins, boxes, and tables were filled with beads, trimmings, straws, fabrics, and a variety of things that I haven't seen in many years. Our store was always filled with people picking and buying. In 1976, I joined my dad in the millinery business. I learned the trade throughout the years and it has become the foundation of which Manny's is run and operated today. My father has been gone since 1990 but I'm grateful for the training, knowledge and life experience that I have gained working at his side. Manny's always carried a huge amount of supplies and hats from a variety of manufacturers. As the manufacturers overseas became stronger and plentiful, the manufacturers in the USA dwindled. If I were to survive, I would either have to import hats from overseas, or become a manufacturer myself. I decided that there were enough hats arriving from overseas and wanted to have control over quality, production, and creativity. In 1995, we opened our own blocking plant with both wood blocks and hat stamping machines. Five years later, we took over the flower factory that used to manufacture our flowers and moved it into New York City. Today, we are a complete vertical business, and offer everything under one roof - from basic supplies, trimmings, untrimmed hats, our Meril line of finished hats, Tressa Swiss Braids, MannyMann mens hats - and everything in between. We have launched our website with a huge variety of these items, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Presently, we are working to add EVERYTHING that we have to offer. Customers who have received our catalogs in the past know that we have the largest selection in the industry. However, we were only able to put maybe 50% of what we would have liked to have included in those catalogs. Now we can and as the time goes on, you will see this website progress, way beyond what our catalogs ever could. In the near future you will be able to read, in great detail, about the origins of this company and the industry. We will have photos past and present and show you some interesting old catalogs and literature from years gone by. I intend to have a lot of fun with this website by making millinery fun. But it's not only millinery as we are now into haberdashery. We now manufacture a men's line, MannyMann, and offer you both casual and elegant styles and materials of men's hats. Just as in our catalogs, I intend to continue with my irreverent sense of humor and musings, but you will always hear the serious truth from me with regard to our industry. For all of you 'long time' customers, this website has been a long time coming. So check our website often. Great things are yet to come! Best, Howard Manny Click here to bookmark us to your favorite places