Emily Wilkens

Emily Wilkens (1917 – December 2, 2000) was an American fashion designer specializing in children's wear. She won both the Neiman Marcus Fashion Award and the Coty Award for her work, which was considered groundbreaking for properly taking note of the requirements of teenage dressing, and not simply offering miniature grown-up garments. She was also an author, writing a number of books on self care and style, and during the late 1960s and early 1970s, became a beauty journalist, writing an advice column.

Early life Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Emily Wilkens graduated from the Pratt Institute in 1938. She put her studies of fashion illustration to use as a sketcher for newspaper advertisements.

In 1947 she married Irving L. Levey, a judge. Among her signature designs were little black dresses for young girls, which, with bright accessories and details, allowed the wearer to have a "grown up" dress whilst avoiding an austere appearance. By 1947, she was said to have served over eight million customers. Coty Award publicity at the time praised Wilkens for producing clothing that gave young girls what they wished for, whilst also pleasing their mothers.

Later life and death Between 1966 and 1976 Wilkens was a trustee of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She died at the age of 83 in a retirement home in Riverdale, Bronx on December 2, 2000. She had been diagnosed with dementia nine years earlier, and moved there in 1991. She was survived by her daughter and son, and five grandchildren.