1915-2000 Bonnie Cashin

[SomethingElse]

I just came across this beautiful piece and had to start a new thread. I had never heard of Bonnie Cashin before. Click here for her bio. And here for tons of information on her work.

Blue Leather Dress, 1960s.

whitakerauction.com

 

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There is a foundation dedicated to her legacy here.

Charcoal fleece is trimmed in tangerine leather and lined in tangerine Jasco jersey. There are those signature brass closures along the placket and a skinny shoestring belt that pops out on either side to tie in a neat bow across your diaphragm. Deep pockets welted with tangerine leather at both hips.

enokiworld.com

 

[SomethingElse]

Click here to see her extensive filmography.

Wool knit tunic dress, c.1967. The innovative sportswear designer Bonnie Cashin produced a distinctive body of work guided by her own fashion sense. This superb example of the Cashin look features her signature leather piping, metal closures, and strong color contrast. The designer, who favored solids over prints, often used a palette of muted earth tones with a bright color accent.

The tunic dress is fashioned from charcoal gray wool knit and is lined with matching shocking pink wool knit. The shocking pink is repeated in the leather trim. The easy-to-wear style features a loosely belted back, sides open to the waist, and deep front pockets.

The spot-on perfect color contrast between the shocking pink and the charcoal gray is brilliant. We can immediately recognize that the wearer belongs to the aristocracy of style, a special cadre of fashion initiates whose smart attire always attracts admiring glances.

This tunic dress came from the private collection of Phillip Sills, who was the Cashin's manufacturing partner. Sills considered this dress an example of her best work. The unlabeled dress, probably a showroom sample, comes with Sills' inventory tag, which reads "Fall 1967." See the second picture from the bottom.

vintagetextile.com

 

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1964. Magenta-and-plum checked wool mohair, plum wool double knit, plum suede. Gift of Helen and Philip Sills Collection of Bonnie Cashin Clothes, 1979.

Cashin appropriated the ingenious toggle closings of luggage to provide the centerfront regimen of this suit, whose shaping with a rectangular torso seems as much Chinese as Western. Asian dress used frogs and other clever closings that opened the Western mind and imagination to something more than buttons, and Cashin is inspired by such differences that originated in the East to arrive at a wholly new solution to the closure of a garment.

metmuseum.org

 

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1964. Turquoise suede and blue, turquoise, and green striped wool mohair. Gift of Helen and Philip Sills Collection of Bonnie Cashin Clothes, 1979.

The wearer is ready for day or evening in this elegant ensemble. As rustic, tactile, and colorful as Cashin's favored mohair is, this outfit works chiefly in terms of silhouette. The profusion of skirt materials can be pulled up and even stuffed into pockets ("retroussée dans les poches") to create a look reminiscent of late eighteen-century fashion. The Cashin silhouette, however, is more simply achieved with an unusual skirt fastener. She called this favorite device her "dog leash" in recognition of that simple hardware. The effect is to winch up the cloth and make the mohair more layered and luxurious by a profoundly simple hitch. A suede bodice, a surprising element for evening, provides a luxurious contrast as well.

metmuseum.org

 

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Wool coat. This is an off white wool coat with camel colored collar and tan suede trim on the cuffs and belt. There are ornamental buckles on the sleeve. The coat is a luxurious rendition of Cashin's innovative styling---a timeless design, that's been copied by a multitude of contemporary designers.

losthorizonvintage.com . More views at the source here.

 

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1967. Natural cotton, red-and-blue plaid wool, and navy blue wool jersey. Gift of Bonnie Cashin.

This day ensemble equalizes men and women without surrendering to menswear design. The conical shape of the swing jacket in canvas is definitely womenswear, though its special ingenuity resides in Cashin's eminently practical dog-leash latching, whereas the plaid trousers could easily come from the menswear wardrobe of a misguided golfer.

metmuseum.org

 

[SomethingElse]

A Passion for Cashin, By Judith Freeman published in the LA Weekly on January 29, 2004

I had never heard of designer Bonnie Cashin until I read an article about her three years ago in the New York Times Magazine, written by Stephanie Day Iverson, who was doing her thesis on Cashin. Cashin had just died, at the age of 91, and Iverson, who had become a very close friend of the designer, was making an impassioned attempt to reclaim a place for her in fashion history. Cashin had suffered a long period of neglect. Even the Times fashion editor had only recently learned of her, according to Iverson.

Iverson’s piece stunned me. From it I learned that Bonnie Cashin was one of the most innovative designers of the 20th century, someone who worked for over seven decades and was responsible for introducing many concepts that continue to fuel fashion today, from the idea of the layered and ethnic looks to the use of leather as a high-fashion material. It wasn’t only Cashin’s designs but her philosophy that excited me. Where had Cashin been, I wondered? How could she have been lost for so many years?

I never forgot that article. And then last week, there I was, in the Department of Special Collections at Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA, doing some research on Raymond Chandler for a novel, when I noticed someone installing a small exhibit. What caught my eye were these incredible hats made of brightly colored woven paper. When I walked over for a closer look, I saw the text identifying them as Bonnie Cashin’s designs. It was one of those ohmygod moments. Here was the work of the woman I’d read about that so excited me, in a place I least expected to find it.

And then there was Iverson herself, installing the show, called “Chic Is Where You Find It,” which she curated. When I told her how excited I’d been by her article and asked what Cashin’s work was doing in the library, she told me that last fall, in what amounted to a quiet little coup, the UCLA library acquired the Bonnie Cashin Archive, accompanied by a gift of $1.5 million from the Cashin estate to care for it and eventually create an online archive. Iverson, whose decision it largely was to decide where the estate would end up and who for the next few years will oversee it, was thrilled by this outcome. “In a sense,” she said, “it’s like bringing Bonnie home.”

Cashin was born in Fresno, to a dressmaker mother, and was already designing clothes as a student at Hollywood High. Iverson explained that even though Cashin lived much of her later life in New York (except for six years spent in Hollywood in the ’40s, designing costumes for films) she never lost her love of the West Coast and drew on it for inspiration. The idea of layering, for instance, came from her visits to Chinatown, where she observed workers’ outfits in the changing weather: Was it a one-shirt day, or two?

This story, like others told about Cashin, has been oft repeated, yet still seems amazing. There’s the one about the poncho she invented after cutting a hole in a blanket to stay warm while riding in her convertible, and the dog-collar snaps she attached to long skirts to allow one to climb stairs while holding a martini. Or the full-length leather raincoat with inside pockets for books that she designed in the 1950s, and the all-leather suits from the same era that one reporter claimed looked like “ladies from Mars.”

To me this is the genius of Cashin: She was the first to design for the truly modern woman — she wanted to make versatile clothes for people who were doing things. Her ideas came out of her own travels. She helped women become mobile and free. She gave us leather, with its bold and sexy feel. She was the thinking woman’s designer, friend of Buckminster Fuller, who was only one of her intellectual heroes. She read a lot. She knew women’s roles were changing, and she intuited that life could be fast and flirty and fun for women: You want to go to India or China? Go right ahead! And here’s a chic, portable, layered wardrobe for your adventure. One that will fit in a bag.

All this comes through in the show at UCLA. Modest as it is, it’s a very personal look at Cashin’s life and work and includes many photographs and early sketches, as well as a few examples of clothing and the famous “Cashin Carry” Coach bags.

“She is an American icon,” Iverson told me. “My objective is to ensure her proper place in 20th-century culture. She was a brilliant, madcap character, and her love of creative endeavors is contagious.” Having caught the Cashin passion, I can attest that this is true.

Source link here if you wish to see the accompanying images.

 

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Orange Leather Trim w/Canvas - Sewn in purse, Brass turn key closures, Patch pockets.

ubnyc.com

 

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Canvas twill.

ubnyc.com

 

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Raspberry-Navy-Pink-Hunter Green Wool Tweed w/Sepia Suede trim.

ubnyc.com

 

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Mini Herringbone Wool suit w/ Leather Trim.

ubnyc.com

 

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Cashmere.

ubnyc.com

 

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A splendid orange leather tunic that crosses over and snaps inside, then fastens with a wide leather sash ending in a gilded double D-ring buckle. V neck, decorative welted seams and big, deep pockets with an orange silk crepe lining.

enokiworld.com

 

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1960's boucle Poncho with leather trim.

evintageclothing.net

 

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Unlined knit.

poshvintage.com

 

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1970s Toggle coat.

poshvintage.com

 

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Dark Oatmeal Wool Boucle Dress and Matching Reversible Poncho/Cape Trimmed in Leather! One of the best Bonnie Cashin sets I've seen. The cape is reversible (if you remove the label - lucky for you the previous owner never removed it!!!) The cape has snap closures on either side to confirm reversibility. A five time Coty award winner, Bonnie Cashin is just starting to get the recognition she deserves as the museum retrospectives and honors continue to pour in. In the 1940's, Cashin designed costumes for 20th Century Fox. She worked on more than 60 films including Anna and the King of Siam, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Laura. In the 1950's, she returned to New York, working for 24 years with manufacturer Phillip Sills to create "clothes for actual situations and living patterns, rather than trends". Her signature pieces include ponchos and natural fabrics such as tweed, leather and suede. This outfit is a classic Cashin! Label: A Bonnie Cashin Design, Sills & Company. This is a very tight fitted unlined knit dress trimmed in leather at the boat neckline, back zipper. The poncho/cape can be worn with collar up or down and it's reversible from wool boucle to black plush acrylic, both sides trimmed in leather. As classy as you can get! Excellent condition.. The color is closest to the photos of the black side of the cape, more a dark oatmeal, not as gold as shown in the other photos. The plush side is black as is the leather trim.

antiquedress.com

 

[gius]

gosh leather as a shirt or dress seems so nice.. i hope i can find thin white leather to dye myself Don't quite like the colour choices here--it's the very first pale steel blue that does it best for me and maybe also this red toggle one^ with the white trim here

thanks for the thread SomethingElse !

 

[SomethingElse]

I agree that her choice in colors is quite loud, in what I've seen so far. I keep thinking about popsicles in all sorts of flavors. But the geometry of her work is so pleasant!

Late 1960s. All-weather coat of bright green cotton canvas, trimmed w/ lime green leather. The coat has a high round neckline, leather collar, full trapeze shaped body, and long sleeves. A thick vertically-appliqued panel runs down the right side in front and in back, connecting to a large leather patch hip pocket. The coat fastens with a metal stud closure at the center front. Cashin has adapted her classic formula for an all-purpose coat to the radical, youth-oriented style of the late '60s by shortening the coat's length, using a strong psychadelic color, and adding the leather panels and pocket to create a trompe l'oeil shoulder bag. Decorative leather trim was always a hallmark of her work, and as leather reached new heights of fashion in this period, she has felt free to expand it from collars and belts into a major design element. The pseudo-shoulder bag is also an inside joke, since Cashin skirts and coats often included built-in pocketbooks. Despite its references to the late '60s, the coat remains a classic that could easily be worn today. Label: A Bonnie Cashin Design for Sills.

beverlybirks.com