Stephen Burrows (designer)
Stephen Burrows | |
---|---|
Born | Newark, New Jersey, U.S. | September 15, 1943
Education | Fashion Institute of Technology |
Occupation | Fashion Designer |
Years active | 1966–present |
Stephen Burrows (born September 15, 1943) is an American
Early life
Burrows was born in Newark, New Jersey on September 15, 1943.[5][6] Born to parents Octavia Pennington and Gerald Burrows,[5] he was raised by his mother, and his maternal grandmother, Beatrice Pennington Banks Simmons. Fascinated with his grandmother's zigzag sewing machine, he learned to sew early.[7] He made his first garment for a friend's doll when he was eight years old.[8]
As a high school student, Burrows took dance lessons and loved the mambo. He began heading to Manhattan on Sundays to dance at the Palladium night club, and began sketching dresses he wanted for his partners. When he graduated from Newark Arts High School, he first enrolled at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art, intending to be an art teacher.[9]
Inspired by dress forms he came across during a tour of the college,[9] he transferred to New York City's Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)[10] where he met a fellow student, Betty Davis, who became his friend and an early muse.[11] He found his studies frustrating, since FIT professors taught a set of basic draping rules that Burrows had no patience with. Even then he had established his spontaneous style of cutting at all angles, stretching edges off grain, and draping as he went.[8] Nonetheless, he graduated in 1966.[12]
Fashion career
Burrows began his working career with a job at blouse manufacturer, Weber Originals.
The O Boutique closed in the spring of 1970.
Stephen designed the outfits for The Supremes 1971 concert in Central Park, along with stylizing the three women. In the fall of 1973, Burrows' first lingerie/sleepwear collection, called "Stevies" was introduced at Henri Bendel's, Bonwit Teller, Lord & Taylor, and Bloomingdales, as well as stores in Chicago, San Francisco, and elsewhere.[25]
Burrows was one of the five American fashion designers chosen to showcase their work at the historical fashion show billed as divertissement à Vèrsailles, held on November 28, 1973.[26] This event has come to be known as The Battle of Versailles Fashion Show. He was the youngest of the American designers to show a collection at the show by more than a decade.[27]
In 1975, Jaclyn Smith of Charlie's Angels fame appeared in a commercial for Burrows' perfume Stephen B.. Three years later fellow "Angel" Farrah Fawcett wore his gold chainmail dress to the Academy Awards where she was a presenter.[28] In February 1981, Brooke Shields, at age 15, appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine wearing Stephen Burrows. Other women who loved his clothes included Barbra Streisand, Cher, The Supremes, Bette Midler, and Jerry Hall.[29]
In May 2006, the
First Lady Michelle Obama wore a Burrows Jersey pantsuit to an event in Washington, D.C. of which Vogue Magazine wrote, "It was a wonderful acknowledgement of Burrows, one of the great African-American designers and a Harlem resident known for his inventive cuts and bias technique."[33]
Awards
- Coty Award, American Fashion Critics award ("Winnie"), 1973[10]
- Coty Award, American Fashion Critics special award (lingerie), 1974
- Coty Award, American Fashion Critics award ("Winnie"), 1977
- Council of American Fashion Critics award, 1975
- Knitted Textile Association Crystal Ball award, 1975
- Bronze plaque on the Fashion Walk of Fame, 2002
- Council of Fashion Designers of America Board of Directors' Special Tribute Award, 2006[27]
- Key to the City of Newark, New Jersey, 2016[34] and many more ig
Retrospectives and tributes
Burrows’ work as a fashion designer has been the subject of a series of retrospectives: in "1940–1970's Cut and Style" at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology;[when?] "The 1970s" at The Tribute Gallery in New York,[when?] and in "Back to Black: Art, Cinema, and the Racial Imaginary" at Whitechapel Gallery in London in June 2005.[35]
In 2013, the Museum of the City of New York mounted the first major examination of Burrows' work in "Stephen Burrows: When Fashion Danced" with an accompanying catalog.[3][36][37]
References
- ^ Zalopany, Chelsea (May 19, 2014). "André Leon Talley Honors Stephen Burrows at SCAD". Vogue. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
- ^ "Stephen Burrows – Fashion Designer Encyclopedia – clothing, century, women, dress, style, new, body, dresses, designs, jewelry, world, look". fashionencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
- ^ a b "Stephen Burrows's Biography". The HistoryMakers. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
- ^ "Newark native, iconic fashion designer Stephen Burrows receives key to city". NJTV News. 2018-02-16. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
- OCLC 826811098.
- ^ a b Ebony. Johnson Publishing Company. 1980-11-01.
- ^ OCLC 826811098.
- ^ ISSN 0021-5996.
- OCLC 1141516276.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ISSN 0012-9011.
- OCLC 826811098.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
- ^ "A 'Soul Look' From The 30s". Ebony: 156. September 1969.
- ISBN 978-1-250-05290-2.
- OCLC 826811098.
- ^ "Fashion Interview: Barbara Leary". New York Magazine: 7. March 9, 1970.
- ISBN 978-1-61069-310-3.
- ^ "Stephen Burrows Looks Back at His Life in Parties". W Magazine. 2024-02-20. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
- ^ "Stephen Burros put joy back into fashion in his first collection for Henri Bendel". Chicago Tribune. 1970-10-19. pp. Section 2 - 2. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
- ^ Sheppard, Eugenia (1970-12-27). "Burrows Mad for Color". Corpus Christi Caller-Times. p. 40. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
- ISBN 978-1-5011-0823-5.
- ^ BERNADINE MORRIS (Jul 16, 1973). "Pajamas to Wear when Going Out". New York Times. p. 24.
- ^ Nemy, Enid (30 November 1973). "Fashion at Versailles: French Were Good, Americans Were Great". New York Times: 26.
- ^ a b Jablon-Roberts, Sara. "Stephen Burrows." Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: The United States and Canada. Ed. Phyllis G. Tortora. Oxford: Bloomsbury Academic, 2010. Bloomsbury Fashion Central. Web. 21 Feb. 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781847888525.EDch031717 .
- OCLC 826811098.
- OCLC 826811098.
- ^ "Fashion Icon Stephen Burrows Honored by Council of Fashion Designers of America". NewsMark Public Relations. 2011-12-07. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
- ISBN 978-1-5013-1382-0.
- ^ "1943-Present – Stephen Burrows | Fashion History Timeline". fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
- ^ a b c "Stephen Burrows first African-American designer". Fashionsizzle. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
- ^ "Newark native, iconic fashion designer Stephen Burrows receives key to city". NJ Spotlight News. 2018-02-16. Retrieved 2021-05-27.
- ISBN 978-0-85488-142-0.
- ^ "Stephen Burrows". Museum of the City of New York. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
- ^ "Stephen Burrows "When Fashion Danced"". YouTube. April 17, 2013.
Further reading
- Givhan, Robin, ‘’The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History’’, New York, 2015.
- Morris, Bernadine, and Barbara Walz, The Fashion Makers, New York, 1978.
- Milbank, Caroline Rennolds, New York Fashion: The Evolution of American Style, New York, 1989.
- Stegemeyer, Anne, Who's Who in Fashion, Third Edition, New York, 1996.