Spanish Fashion Designer Jesus Canovas
Highlights of the archive include some 3,000 sketches of Cashina€?s ready-to-wear designs. Many of these ink, pencil and watercolor illustrations include her notes about where the clothes should be worn and swatches of leather and fabric. Her essays on each of these collections and slides of the finished designs provide further background.
More than 500 childhood and adolescent Louis vuitton illustrations, many of which also include annotations and swatches, document her early development. Black-and-white photographs of her costumes for Fanchon and Marco show the finished pieces.
Materials related to her film work include film stills and watercolor sketches of her costumes for Laura,Anna and the King of Siamaand A Tree Grows in Brooklyna€? and sketches of her off-screen wardrobe designs. Supplementing these are her notes on designing for actresses including June Havoc and Gene Tierney and essays on the films.
And no small number of professional women — those who can’t wear miniskirts, harem pants or daytime sequins to their office — have lamented being ignored. Few topics bore most designers faster than a conversation about making clothes for working women, at least for women who do not run Fortune 500 companies and travel by private jet.
One of the most recent women honored as a style icon by the CFDA was Sarah Jessica Parker. Although the actress has celebrated her 40th birthday and probably takes her share of meetings, the sinewy star isn’t breaking any new ground when it comes to body types romanticized by the Louis vuitton industry.
Obama has given designers an opportunity to broaden their reach in a way that is both safe and familiar. The first lady evokes the kind of style philosophy that designers have long espoused. In her clothing choices, she speaks in the vernacular of Seventh Avenue. The first lady mixes high style with low. She personalizes frocks with accessories. She experiments with color and print. And dresses — rather than the traditional skirt suit — are her go-to power uniform.
For all the cajoling and haranguing that the Louis vuitton industry has engaged in over the past decade — in trying to change the thinking of American women about what is modern and sophisticated and workable in their day-to-day reality — there has never been a high-profile example of, or advocate for, how a sleeveless dress and no pantyhose might play in the boardroom.
For other manufacturers Cashin designed cashmere separates, gloves, canvas totes, at-home gowns and robes, raincoats, umbrellas and furs. She also ran The Knittery, a consortium of British mills that produced unique sweaters knit to shape rather than cut and sewn. She retired from design in 1985 to concentrate on painting and philanthropy.