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Fashion designer Bill Blass to visit IU Oct. 21
Oct. 14, 1999
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Noted American designer Bill Blass, a Fort Wayne native, will discuss fashion and his career on Thursday (Oct. 21) at 3 p.m. in Indiana University's School of Fine Arts (SoFA) Gallery. A brief question-and-answer session and a reception will follow. The event is free and open to the public.
In addition to his lecture, Blass will tour the Elizabeth Sage Historic Costume Collection, meet with fashion design students, and discuss plans for a Bill Blass fashion exhibition to be held in the IU Art Museum in fall 2001. The Sage Collection, which contains Blass items, is overseen by the Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design.
As owner, chairman and designer of Bill Blass Ltd., initiated in 1970, Blass has achieved an international reputation for his designs. He is a three-time winner of the Coty American Fashion Critics Award and a member of the Coty Hall of Fame. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1987.
Blass was president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America from 1979 to 1981 and is currently a member of both its executive committee and board of directors. His clients have included numerous notables such as Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Barbra Streisand, Barbara Walters, Candice Bergen and Mary Tyler Moore.
Born in Fort Wayne in 1922, the son of a hardware store owner, Blass left Indiana at 18 years of age and landed a sketching job in the fashion business in New York. During World War II, he served in the Army Corps of Engineers. Then he returned to New York and continued his career.
The SoFA Gallery is located on the second floor of the Fine Arts Building, east of the IU Art Museum. For further information, contact the Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design at 812-855-5497.
(Jen McCormick, 812-855-5393, jenmccor@indiana.edu