The Millinery Shop is an oil on canvas painting by the French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas created between 1879 and 1886.

[3] The composition of the painting is structured so that the hats take up more space than the subject at the table, giving the work a sense of spatial imbalance.

Art historian Gloria Groom points out that Degas seemingly painted her with a look of concentration on her face, as if she were working on the hat in her hands with great attention to detail.

[4]: 131  They suggest that the unique positioning of the yellow hat just above the head of the woman creates a sense that she "...is juxtaposed with the tangible results of her labor, which she is destined not to wear.

An early pastel study of the painting Degas titled At the Milliner's shows that the woman at first had an elegant yellow hat, further indicating she was originally meant to be a customer.

[1]: 221 According to the art historians Simon Kelly and Esther Bell, the hats on the table "reflect the very latest fashions for spring and summer in the early 1880s.

During Degas's lifetime, the millinery trade was booming—Paris had undergone a significant urban renewal campaign in the mid 19th century which reinvigorated the economy.

Kelly and Bell observe that millinery was "a central element in Degas's analysis of Parisian modern life, fashion, and especially the world of trade and commerce.