Van Vleet Millinery

Owned and operated by Mathilda Van Vleet , the Van Vleet Millinery offers the finest accessories for those with sufficient coin to afford such works created by the artist, Ms. Van Vleet. A small but handsome store, the millinery's bland brick exterior hides a riotous colorful interior full of the latest fashions and Ms. Van Vleet's own custom creations. 
The women in town preen like peacocks when wearing Van Vleet's inventions, and often become the envy of those who cannot afford them. Others find Van Vleet's daring designs to cross the bounds of good taste and are altogether too European, reveling in immodest French and Dutch debauchery, accentuating women's busts, hips, and thighs. Van Vleet sniffs at such moralizing and takes great satisfaction in her clothing and accessories being a rich export, as they've become well-known in New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia.

Uncanny Occurrence

The lights of the millinery stay illuminated throughout the night as Van Vleet burns the candles at both ends. When the morning light reaches the front window of the store, often a mannequin wearing a stunning new fashion is there to greet the day. Some of the older and more modest church going ladies have taken to picketing out front, claiming Van Vleet is encouraging young girls to dress like prostitutes. Discouragingly for them, not only has it not effected shop sales in the slightest, the picketers bringing the complaints have all grown violently ill from some highly transmissible sickness. Van Vleet herself has managed to remain the very picture of health, but all the neighbors around her have contracted this mysterious and life-threatening illness.