Bonnie Cashin

Bonnie Cashin (September 28, 1908 – February 3, 2000) was an American fashion designer. Considered a pioneer in the design of American sportswear, she created innovative, uncomplicated clothing that catered to the modern, independent woman beginning in the post-war era through to her retirement from the fashion world in 1985.

Early life Cashin was born on September 28, 1908 in Oakland, California to Carl Cashin, a photographer and inventor, and Eunice Cashin, a dressmaker. The family lived in several towns in northern California during Cashin's early years, and in each, her mother would open a custom dress shop. In a 1973 interview, Cashin explained her interest in fashion: "My mother was a dressmaker and before I could write I could sew."

Cashin attended Hollywood High. During high school, Cashin was hired by a Los Angeles ballet and theatrical revue company, Fanchon and Marco, to help make costumes for its productions. After she graduated in 1925, Cashin became its full-time designer. She was hesitant to accept, stating, "The profit-conscious, business-like atmosphere of Seventh Avenue seemed very different to me from the atmosphere around the theater. I felt more at home with dancers, actors, artists, musicians, writers--people like that--than I did with most of the business men I met in the clothing industry."

After the U.S. entered World War II, Cashin designed uniforms for women in the armed forces. as well as the Neiman Marcus Award, an unprecedented feat in the fashion world. In 1964, Cashin introduced a brass turn lock/toggle fastening that was featured on her designs produced by the Cahns as well as on all garment and accessory collections produced by a range of manufacturers in the US and abroad, including Philip Sills, Meyers, Crescendoe-Superb, HBA, and D. Klein. Cashin designed two small collections for the Cahns each year to complement her garment designs for other manufacturers until 1974. In 1975, Meyers Manufacturing took over the production of her signature handbag designs. She also created the first-ever designer flight attendants' uniforms for American Airlines. In 2016, Rizzoli published Lake's definitive monograph on the designer, Bonnie Cashin: Chic is Where You Find It. In 2019 (as reported by Women's Wear Daily), Lake and her husband Cory opened the archive to collaborative partnerships. The Bonnie Cashin Archive and its projects have no affiliation with any Cashin trademarks registered in the decades since Cashin's death. Cashin herself never registered her name.

Influence Cashin is often cited for creating both the concept of layering clothing and for coining the term. The idea of layering came from time she spent in living near San Francisco's Chinatown as a young girl. She also pioneered the use of leather, mohair and hardware in her design. Inspired by the brass turnlocks that secured the top of her 1940s convertible, the hardware became a signature feature of all of her designs, including her Coach handbags.

Cashin was famous for her witty and ingenious approaches to designing for mobility, including a dog leash skirt: a long wool skirt that could be instantly shortened for walking up stairs by latching a small brass ring sewn at the bottom to a small brass clasp sewn into the waistline. In a February 2000 interview with National Public Radio, Cashin explained the origin of the skirt: "My studio, out in the country, in Briarcliff, in the old carriage house, had steps that went up to a second floor. And I was constantly holding my skirts going up. I entertained a lot. And I'd be running up stairs with a martini in my hand. And so I thought I'd better hitch my skirt permanently."

Exhibitions Cashin's work is housed in over forty museums across the US. In 1962, the Brooklyn Museum presented the first retrospective of her work.

Exhibitions of Cashin's work include: "Director's Choice" Philadelphia Museum College of Art, 1961 "A Bonnie Cashin Living Sketchbook", Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1962 (untitled exhibition of Cashin's drawings) Time-Life, London, 1966 "The Art of Fashion", The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1967-1968 "Made With Paper", The Museum of Contemporary Crafts, 1967-1968 "Sporting Life", The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972 "Suiting Everyone", Smithsonian Institution, 1974 "Bonnie Cashin Retrospective", Goldstein Gallery, University of Minnesota, 1976 "American Designer Show", Goldstein Gallery, University of Minnesota, 1978 "Women Designers", Fashion Institute of Technology, 1981 "An American Fashion Institution: Designer Bonnie Cashin", Shippensburg State University, 1982 "Meet Bonnie Cashin: Clothes for the Twentieth Century", State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1984-1985 "American Style: Masterpieces of Fashion, 1880-1968", Rhode Island School of Design, 1986 "So, You Want to be in Pictures: Ready-to-Wear by Hollywood Designers", Cincinnati Art Museum, 1987 "Her Works Praise Her: Women as Inventors", Goldstein Gallery, University of Minnesota, 1988 "Dressing the Part: Costume Sketches for Hollywood Films", Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1989 "Bonnie Cashin: Form Follows Function", Mount Mary College, 1991 "Paper Clothes: 1966-1991", Fashion Institute of Technology, 1991 "In Black and White: Dress from the 1920s to Today", Ohio State University, 1992 "Reel to Real: The Hollywood Designer After Film", Ohio State University, 1993-1994 "Stipelman: His illustrations and the Fashions they Reflect", Ohio State University, 1996 "Best Dressed: 250 Years of Style", Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1997-1998 "American Ingenuity", The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998 "Designing Women: American Style 1940-1960", Wadsworth Atheneum, 1998 "Japonsim in Fashion: Japan Dresses the West", Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1998-1999 "Bonnie Cashin: Practical Dreamer", Fashion Institute of Technology, 2000-2001 "Way Haute West", Phoenix Art Museum, 2000-2001 "Bonnie Cashin for Coach", Mitsukoshi, Tokyo, 2001 "Women Designers in the USA, 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference", The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture, 2000-2001 "Bonnie Cashin: An Elegant Solution", Goldstein Gallery, University of Minnesota, 2003 "Seventh Avenue: Fashion Walk of Fame", Fashion Institute of Technology, 2003-2004 "Chic is Where You Find It", UCLA, 2003-2004 "Bonnie Cashin: A Classic American Sportswear Designer", Shippensburg State University, 2004 "The Artful Line: Drawings and Prints from FIT's Special Collections", Fashion Institute of Technology, 2004 "Furnishing Fashion: Material Connections in Twentieth-Century Design", The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, 2004 "Bonnie Cashin Plus Six", Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery, 2007 "Inside the Designer's Studio: Bonnie Cashin", Drexel University, 2007 "American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection", Brooklyn Museum, 2010 "Functional Fashions", Milwaukee Museum of Art, 2019 "Passer-by", Lafayette Anticipations, Paris, 2019

Awards Awards and recognition for Cashin's work include:

Vogue Fashions America Does Best, 1938 Neiman Marcus Fashion Award, 1950 The Coty Fashion Critics Award, 1950 The Sporting Look Award, Sports Illustrated, 1958 Philadelphia Museum College of Art Citation, 1959 Woolknit Associates Design Award, 1959 The Coty American Fashion Critics Award, 1960 Lord & Taylor Salute for Creative Contributions to American Design, 1960 Woolknit Associated Design Award for Special Achievement, 1961 The Lighthouse for the Blind Award, 1961 The Coty American Fashion Critics Special Award, 1961 Sports Illustrated Award, 1963 The Detroit Business Association National Award, 1963 The London Sunday Times International Fashion Award, 1964 The Lighthouse for the Blind Award, 1967 Moscow International Fashion Award, 1967 The Coty Fashion Critics Award, 1968 Leather Industries American Handbag Designer Award, 1968 The Kaufmann Fashion Award, 1968 Saks Fifth Avenue, The Creator Citation, 1969 The Mount Mary Golden Needle Award, 1970 The Coty American Fashion Critics Hall of Fame Award, 1972 I. Magnin's Great American Award, 1974 The American Fashion Award for Furs, 1975 Drexel University Citation, 1976 Leather Industries American Handbag Designer Award, 1976 Woolknit Associates Design Award, 1980 Fashion Group Foundation Certificate, 1981 Rhode Island School of Design President's Fellow Award, 1985 Fashion Walk of Fame, 2001