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Bill Blass biography

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Quick Facts

  • PLACE OF BIRTH: Fort Wayne, Indiana
  • PLACE OF DEATH: New Preston, Connecticut
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Bill Blass, American fashion designer, is known for building a fashion company on his approach to women's fashion that focused on ease and comfort.

Synopsis

Bill Blass, born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, went to work for Anna Miller Fashion House after serving in World War II. It was at this time he created a following among society women and Diana Vreeland. Once Blass became the owner of his own company, he began licensing his name to products outside of fashion, a trend that exists to this day.

Contents

Quotes

Red is the ultimate cure for sadness.
– Bill Blass

Profile

(born June 22, 1922, Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.—died June 12, 2002, New Preston, Connecticut) American designer who helped define the relaxed, pared-down elegance that would characterize American fashion in the late 20th century.

Blass left home at age 17 to attend the Parsons School of Design in New York City. He served more than three years in the U.S. Army during World War II, and then, about 1946, at a time when American fashion began to receive the international attention that was once only afforded to French design, he joined the fashion house of Anna Miller and Co. in New York. In 1959, after the company had merged with Maurice Rentner, Ltd., Blass became the head designer of Rentner. His work became popular among high-society women in New York, and he quickly became part of a fashionable postwar scene that included Diana Vreeland, then a fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar and later the influential editor of American Vogue.

Building upon the innovations of European designers such as Coco Chanel, Blass made clothes that allowed women a modern sense of ease and comfort. He made sportswear, but he glamourized the concept by making clothes that possessed a new American casual chic sensibility, which he achieved by merging simple styles with luxurious materials. Classic Blass designs included a pea coat he fashioned from white mink in 1966, a strapless gray flannel day dress that he paired with a cashmere sweater tied over the shoulders, and a simple yet sharply cut dress that he transformed with feminine ruffles (his signature style). In a sense, Blass became his own best model: he featured himself and a female model wearing matching houndstooth-checked suits in a 1965 advertisement. Two decades later, designers Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein would similarly feature themselves in their own ads and would similarly market their brands around the image of a sophisticated, modern American lifestyle.

In 1970 Blass became owner of Rentner, which he renamed after himself. Blass was a pioneer in employing the business strategy of licensing his designs and name to a huge array of fashion accessories, including home furnishings, jeans, eyewear, and luggage. As his business expanded, his name became synonymous with classic good taste. Throughout his long career, his clients—including socialites and prominent figures such as Katharine Graham and Nancy Reagan—remained devoted customers. Blass sold his company in 1999 and retired the following year; Bill Blass Ltd. continued under the leadership of new designers.

One of the founders of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Blass

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