In a New Memoir, Jeanne Beker Tells the Story of Her Life Through Her Epic Wardrobe

You wrote about your breast cancer journey in the book, and particularly how style played a part in that experience. I know you experimented a lot with hats.

I’ve always been a hat lover. When I was a little girl, I got to wear a little straw boater hat with grosgrain ribbon on it, and I also remember going to Paris with a brown felt fedora with a big pheasant feather in it. But sadly I stopped wearing them somewhere along the way. When I started going through my chemotherapy and losing my hair, I went out and bought a red wig—because I thought, if I’m ever going to be a redhead, this is it! But when I got home and tried it on, it didn’t feel authentic. So, I started wearing hats. By surprise, a wonderful milliner by the name of David Dunkley in Toronto sent me a little black newsboy cap. It really touched me because my mom used to love wearing these caps.My dear friend Louise Kennedy, one of the most brilliant designers, also sent me a gorgeous, sparkly magenta cap. I started wearing these little caps, and I felt good about myself.

Have you worn these hats since finishing chemo?

You know what, I haven’t. It’s funny: Every once in a while before I go out, I’ll put one on and go, This is sort of cool. But then I’m like, nah—I’ve got a full head of hair now. Things become representative of an era in your own life, which you don’t necessarily hate thinking back on, but you just don’t want to live it again.

I also loved your story about the silver Elsa Peretti Tiffany & Co. cuff that you lost during one of your chemo appointments—and how it might now be with someone who needs it more than you do.

It’s all about the way we choose to see something. I wore that cuff for over 25 years. I had just finished one of my treatments at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and realized I had forgotten my bracelet at the hospital. At first I was devastated. But then I wondered, How can I perceive this and turn it into a positive? I realized that maybe I had found my power; I had been treated successfully for cancer, and I had come through a journey that I wondered if I would ever make it through. So I thought, I don’t need that bracelet to be empowered by anymore. I hope somebody else has found it, and I hope it’s empowering somebody else.

We have to finish off by talking about your most-worn closet staple today—the pin you received when being honored with the Order of Canada in 2013.