Bill Blass is one of twenty-eight American designers of distinction featured on Seventh Avenue’s Fashion Walk Of Fame, titled “the hardest working man on Seventh Avenue.” Bill Blass redefined the standard of his profession, revolutionized modern style, and American fashion will never be the same.
As a young child in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Bill Blass gravitated towards the romance of American celebrities. His early influences were the women he saw in Hollywood films and in the pages of Vogue.
These glamorous ladies inspired him to begin sketching designs and eventually study fashion at Parsons School of Design. He sold his designs to a few brands who sold them under their own labels.
He could have easily made a long, lucrative career out of being an anonymous back-room designer, but that wasn’t enough for him.
Bill eventually packed up his sketchpad and moved to New York with a dream. Instead of creating for other labels, he wanted to build his own fashion house. He was the first American designer to brand himself, using his own name and pulling back the workroom curtain at a time when the profession had yet to be glamorized. The NYC elite had never seen anything like it. Stylish, practical and timeless. His clothes were worn by a who’s who list of the City’s high-profile socialites.
Bill Blass is one of twenty-eight American designers of distinction featured on Seventh Avenue’s Fashion Walk Of Fame, titled “the hardest working man on Seventh Avenue.”
As a young child in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Bill Blass gravitated towards the romance of American celebrities. His early influences were the women he saw in Hollywood films and in the pages of Vogue. These glamorous ladies inspired him to begin sketching designs and eventually study fashion at Parsons School of Design.
He sold his designs to a few brands who sold them under their own labels. He could have easily made a long, lucrative career out of being an anonymous back-room designer. But that wasn’t enough for him.
Bill eventually packed up his sketchpad and moved to New York with a dream. Instead of creating for other labels, he wanted to build his own fashion house. He was the first American designer to brand himself, using his own name and pulling back the workroom curtain at a time when the profession had yet to be glamorized. The NYC elite had never seen anything like it. Stylish, practical and timeless. His clothes were worn by a who’s who list of the City’s high-profile socialites.
