Bill blass gay

Fashion Walk of Fame

History

In the 1920s, Fresh York City’s garment industry moved north to the Seventh Avenue area (the present-day Garment District), becoming a center for garment manufacturing and fashion showrooms. The term “Seventh Avenue” later became synonymous with fashion, especially as so many internationally-renowned fashion designers opened showrooms there. In tribute to “New York designers who acquire had a significant and lasting impact on the way the world dresses,” the Fashion Center Business Improvement District (BID) established the Fashion Walk of Fame in 1999. The first bronze plaques were installed in 2000. Today, the Fashion Stroll of Fame has grown to add plaques located on the sidewalks between West 35th and 41st Streets on the east side of Seventh Route. Several gay fashion designers are commemorated there:

Geoffrey Beene (1924-2004) opened his Manhattan fashion house on Seventh Avenue in 1963. His clients included First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, and Nancy Reagan and actresses Faye Dunaway and Glenn Close. In 1976, he became the first American designer to sh

The decline of fashion can be traced to the increase of the photo op. Whom you can attract to the shows and parties, whether they be movie stars, rock royalty or president’s daughters, has upstaged the actual creative process of designing clothing.

Gwyneth Paltrow at Stella McCartney. Angie Harmon at Michael Kors. Kelly Osbourne and Hilary Swank at Marc Jacobs. Natalie Portman at Zac Posen. Chelsea Clinton and, later, Britney Spears at Versace. These double-kissers — often wearing borrowed jewels, sporting free frocks and sipping comped champagne — may be good at getting their faces in Us Weekly and on Page Six but aren’t actually elevating the craft of fashion.

Bill Blass knew this. And somewhere in the big fashion house in the sky (pillowy clouds of double-face cashmere and Fortuny silk, no doubt), Blass must be letting out a throaty snicker at what has become of the business he helped revolutionize.

“Nowadays, the frank pursuit of celebrities by designers has degenerated into a glorified swap meet — your publicity for my free dress,” Blass wrote in his memoir, “Bare Blass” (HarperCollins, $25.95). “I’ve never dr

William R. Blass (1922-2002) was first and foremost a handsome, male lover fashion designer and society maven. As a couturier he made millions and was thus competent to travel in the social circles of the rich and famous clients he dressed – Blass was on a first name basis with several presidents’ wives.

He was also a philanthropist, a collector of art, furniture and antiquities, and an activist. He lived a life of glitz and glamor, squiring around the wives of some of the world’s most powerful men. Scores of married women up and down Park Avenue called on Blass when their husbands were too bored or drained to go out for a black-tie party.

From the time he formed Bill Blass Limited in 1970, his career was on a rocket trajectory; by 1998 his firm had grown to a $700-million-a-year business. A native of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, he had been a protégé of socialite/fashion editor Baron de Gunzburg, as were Oscar de la Renta and Calvin Klein; these three men went on to dominate the fashion industry, each becoming far more famous than Gunzburg, their mentor.

Over the next 30 years he expanded his line of clothing for men and women to involve swimwear, furs, luggage, perfume, and e

American Success Story And Artist Bill Blass Turns 100

June 22 marks the 100th birthday of fashion creator Bill Blass, who passed away in 2002 at the age of 79. But don’t expect any invitations to arrive for New York-based festivities.

To honor the iconic fashion architect, one must travel west 647 miles. Despite the fact that his personal and professional life were based in New York for more than 60 years, all significant celebrations in honor of Blass will take place in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The Bill Blass Blast, beginning June 22 and lasting 100 days, will feature a variety of events and exhibits at different venues, including the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and The Fort Wayne History Center. Bill Blass special edition Lincoln cars will be on display at a local dealership, and sculptor Greg Mendez has been commissioned to develop six statues that will each highlight Bill Blass designs.

Blass was a fashion industry pioneer, one of the first to license his name to products beyond clothing, including fragrance, furniture, and chocolate. He was the first couturier to create a menswear collection (in 1967), and one of the first American designers to ste