THE RELEVANT QUEER: Bill Blass, Fashion Designer and Founding Member of the CFDA

“Fashion can be bought by anybody; style takes discernment, it has to do with individuality.”

TRQ: Bill Blass, Born June 22, 1922

Fashion designer Bill Blass, a founding member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), was born on June 22, 1922. Editor Diana Vreeland, socialite Brooke Astor, artist Gloria Vanderbilt and journalist Barbara Walters were among the friends and clients he referred to as his “gals.” 

The son of a hardware sales agent and a dressmaker, William Ralph Blass was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He spent his childhood years drawing imagined scenes of fashionable New York women at home in their penthouses. He also frequented the movies to take in the glamour of Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard and other Hollywood stars. 

Blass attended South Side High School, and after graduation he won a design prize from The Chicago Tribune. In 1940, he moved to New York and studied at the McDowell School of Fashion. He also worked as a sketch artist for the Seventh Avenue clothing manufacturer David Crystal. 

In 1943, Blass enlisted in the Army as part of the 603rd Camouflage Battalion, a counterintelligence unit. He took part in the Battle of the Bulge and crossing the Rhine. He picked up something of a British accent from his time in service. 

After the war, Blass returned to New York and worked temporarily for Anne Klein. “She said I had good manners but no talent,” Blass once said. 

He next worked at Anna Miller, a manufacturer that eventually merged with Maurice Rentner, Miller’s brother’s fashion house. There, Blass established his talent as a designer with clean, modern cuts. When Rentner died in 1960, Blass put his name on the label. He became the first American couture designer to create menswear I 1967. In 1970, he bought the Rentner firm and renamed it Bill Blass Ltd. 

Socialising with New York socialites, his reputation grew. Blass hosted guests at his 18th Century home in Connecticut, where he would serve a special meatloaf recipe. Blass also pioneered the using licenses to expand his product range. By the1990s, his name was on nearly 100 licenses. He designed Blassport, a mid-price collection, alongside released jeans, sportswear, home furnishings and fragrances. 

Blass worked on behalf of charitable causes. He contributed to the Cornell Medical Center’s AIDS care facility and the New York Public Library. The CFDA gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, and their first Humanitarian Leadership Award in 1996. He also has a bronze marker on Seventh Avenue’s Fashion Walk of Fame. 

“Fashion can be bought by anybody; style takes discernment, it has to do with individuality.” — Bill Blass 

Blass worked well into his 70s. When asked about retirement, he would answer, “I still have fun because I’m highly competitive. If it starts to bore me, I’ll stop doing it.” In 1999 he sold his business. A year later, he suffered from throat cancer and started work on a catalogue to accompany his fashion exhibit at Indiana University. 

He also started writing his memoir, Bare Blass (2002). The book tells of his rise as leading fashion designer and his relationships with men and women, in a deliberately understated, refined tone. “All my experiences, all my yearnings, have been those of a typical American boy becoming a typical American man, except that my focus was on clothes rather than on oil drilling or banking or some other great commodity… It was a typical American success story after all,” he once said, describing his book. 

On June 12, 2002, Blass died from cancer-related causes in his Connecticut home.

About the Authors

Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.

Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore. 

Sources:

CFDA

Encyclopedia

NY Times

The Guardian