1915-2000 Bonnie Cashin

[SomethingElse]

1965. Day coat of vibrant saffron yellow suede with a small collar, wide long sleeves, two large rectangular patch pockets edged with top stitching on the breasts, two hip pockets set into the side seams with their apertures emphasized by top-stitching, a frontal metal stud closure, trapezoid sil-houette with slightly flared back and long wide raglan sleeves under which one could comfortably wear a suit jacket. Suede in this strong colour is shocking today but at the time this was made, it was outrageous. The colour is much stronger in reality than it is in the photo. The geometric seam treatments and top-stitching combined with the metal stud closure give this a futuristic space age impact.

beverlybirks.com

 

[DosViolines]

Thanks for the thread

Around 2000, before her death, I read a New York Times Magazine article on Bonnie Cashin, featuring images of her apartment.
It was the first and last time I ever read anything on her, wish I still had it.

 

[DosViolines]

fashiontrac.com

[SIZE=-1]Her vintage pieces are as ageless as Dick Clark, and almost impossible to date, even by the experts. Therein lies her genius. A Cashin swing coat in a glorious explosion of pink, gold, and bronze plaid mohair could have been designed yesterday.

[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]The Adler & Adler label is the earliest Cashin label. The Sills label tells us it was most likely designed 40 or 50 years ago. Cashin has done knitwear for Ballantyne, handbags for Coach and Meyers and a collection of outerwear for Russ Taylor.

[/SIZE][SIZE=-1] Simply put (and simplicity was her signature, along with modern, unstructured clothes born in an era of corseted New Looks), Cashin clothes don't look vintage. They're the most wearable vintage investments of all.[/SIZE]

Bonnie Cashin for Adler & Adler

 

[DosViolines]

Poncho with gray flannel lining-Bonnie Cashin for Russ Taylor. From the collection of JB Hoffman.

fashiontrac.com

 

[SomethingElse]

Here is one of the articles from the New York Times on Cashin.

My Passion for Cashin: A Young Student Remembers Her Fashion Mentor, by Stephanie Day Iverson

When I met Bonnie Cashin nearly four years ago, I wore my first Cashin -- a turquoise leather coat that was designed in 1974, one year and a spring collection after I was born. The coat was the reason that Bonnie and I were meeting. I fell in love with its matching silk crepe lining and hip-height encirclement of pockets, designed for carrying books, the first day I saw it in the Sotheby's fashion department, where I worked as a researcher. I was also working on my M.A. at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture. Reading about Bonnie (who died in 2000 at the age of 84) and finding that little had been published about her nearly seven decades of costume and clothing design, I wanted her to be the subject of my thesis.
No one bid on the coat, and it was purchased for me as a surprise thank-you by my boss, Tiffany Dubin. Soon afterward, it was singled out in one post-auction review as a "tired" fashion that we made a mistake in trying to sell. (This, regarding a garment that has since elicited thoughtful compliments from jaded teenage boys in the midst of after-school reigns of terror on the subway.) When I voiced my interest in Bonnie, a chain of mutual friends managed an invitation for me to phone her. In a somewhat lengthy, lofty monologue, I told her about the coat and how I felt destined to redress historical neglect and contemporary misunderstanding and that it was critical that her creative life be documented and examined in its entirety! When I finished my speech, there was silence. Then laughter. She essentially told me to settle down and asked if I would like to join her for tea at her apartment.


Bonnie and I just clicked. Soon after our first meeting, we slipped into a teasing, loving, sisterly relationship. She called me Dodo or referred to me as "the big question mark." She also granted me exclusive and unrestricted access to her design archive, housed in a separate apartment below her residential space at United Nations Plaza. I would ring her bell and hear her sing, "Yoo-hoo, yoo-hoo, Stephanie," as she approached the door. We would give each other a quick peck, after which she would hand me the key to the archive and say, "See you later, kiddo."

My ongoing research in her studio is a zigzag treasure hunt through material pinned across bulletin boards, arranged around slide carousels, piled under and over tables and collected in baskets, portfolios, file cabinets, travel journals and closets. I plan to spend the next two years here finishing a book on Cashin. Among her gems, I've found her childhood sketches of annotated dance costumes and fashions -- filled in with colored pencils or watercolors -- showing the combined influences of her custom-dress maker mother, fashion magazines, fairy tales, ballet performances and a fascination with the Chinatowns of Los Angeles and San Francisco that filled her nomadic California childhood. Stacks of black-and-white photographs of smiling, sexy-but-sweet chorus girls are all that remain of Bonnie's first career as a dance costume designer for Fanchon & Marco, a troupe of line dancers, when she was 15 and still in high school and had to be driven to work in Los Angeles every night by her mother. The record of her late-1930's entry into ready-to-wear is in fashion spreads that Bonnie cut out from Vogue and Harper's Bazaar and pasted into floral-fabric-covered scrapbooks. She marked with small red-pencil checks the ensembles she "anonymously" designed. Articles from the war years explain Bonnie's appointments, first as a designer of Civilian Defense uniforms and then as one of 10 designers representing the best of American fashion in The New York Times's first-ever Fashions of The Times.

From her 1943-1949 tenure as a designer in the "glamour division" at 20th Century Fox, there are portfolios of oversize watercolor and ink illustrations, many labeled for a particular actress's on- or offscreen wardrobe, all foreshadowing the "real" clothing designs for which she would become most famous. From her decades in ready-to-wear, thick books of editorial commentary and annotated fashion sketches demonstrate how to layer tweed ponchos and suede Persian tunics, mohair Noh coats, funnel-necked cashmere sweaters and wool-jersey, leather-trimmed dresses, examples of which still hang in pink, orange and green closets.

She designed the clothes that she wanted and needed to wear for own modern, mobile, madcap lifestyle. A letter dashed off to her mother tells of a decision to "skip Amsterdam, it will always be there" in favor of traveling "to Russia, on a ship which stops briefly in Copenhagen and Stockholm and lands at Leningrad -- 4 days there -- then by train to Moscow. I'll fly from Moscow to London, then home. It sounds like a lark." Days later, a postcard teases: "Guess where we are -- extraordinary -- fabulous -- unbelievable -- feel wonderful. Approaching the glorious U.S.S.R. -- and about to be approached by the glorious custom officers who've just come aboard." Next, back in London, "went to the opening of 'Othello' at Covent Garden Opera . . . went to Ascot to the races Friday -- sunny wonderful day -- all the ladies in their big hats -- saw that Queen and her whole party close . . . have seen some good plays. Liberty is planning a Bonnie Cashin department -- all Sills things - . . . met a man from Lyle of Scott -- the cashmere sweater place -- Dior used to do a line for them and they might be interested in me doing something. I hope so -- I would like that."

As I sifted through Bonnie's past, curled up on her Nelson Marshmallow sofa or perched at her drafting table, Bonnie would pop down to "play" with stacks of fabric or occasionally, to my consternation, to weed through her piles and files of papers. As soon as I heard her tearing up documents, I would raise my head and demand to know what she was erasing from history. I was a constant interruption, incessantly pointing at things and asking just a "quick question." After learning "where on earth" I found something, she would tell me about relying on her mother to help her sew all night in order to meet a costume deadline for the Roxyettes, the precision dancers at New York's Roxy Theatre who were rivals of the Rockettes, or about a cocktail party at which she and Gypsy Rose Lee lounged in matching fur skirts that Bonnie had originally designed for Gene Tierney in "Laura."

We often chatted upstairs at her massive marble and iron table, seated on weightless wire garden chairs. We looked out over the U.N. or at the little island in the East River where she and Buckminster Fuller envisioned erecting a torch whose height would change according to the intensity of international conflicts. Subjects ranged from lamenting Seventh Avenue's aesthetic in-breeding to Bonnie's hope that I would date one of her "younger" friends. In the last year of her life, these afternoons became planning sessions. Word that I was culling information for a book on Bonnie had led to an invitation to co-curate a retrospective (held last September) of her career at the Fashion Institute of Technology with Dorothy Twining Globus, then its director.

Bonnie wanted this show to convey her design philosophy, best summed up in what she referred to as "a little ditty" by the Grateful Dead, pinned up over her desk, that advised "once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest places if you look at it right." Bonnie firmly believed that accepted practices and intended uses were not sacred. Metal toggles on the convertible top of her little red sports car became closures on the handbags she designed for Coach and dog-leash clasps allowed her to hitch up long skirts and carry cocktails up the stairs of her country house. Car blankets inspired her first ponchos, and upholstery fabric, leather and suede were her favorite materials for evening dress.

After seeing the show, one group of students commented that the clothes were wonderful but were just like what everyone sees every day. While missing the point that Bonnie was the originator of these familiar ideas and "looks," their summation attests to her unrecognized but tremendous influence today. Bonnie believed that she designed for her contemporary moment and disagreed that she was ahead of it. Such observations, she claimed, were really comments on the lack of innovation in current fashion. But the reality is that she was so avant-garde that her work of 25 or even 50 years ago seems reflective of our own time.

nytimes.com

 

[SomethingElse]

Here are the images that accompany the article above.

Cashin's city view. All vases, plants and flowers by Anthony Todd.

Cashin's living room, from far left: The 19th-century pigskin trunk, George Nelson Marshmallow sofa, Isamu Noguchi cocktail table and Eames chair are among the items that will be sold.

Her office with sketches and paintings on packing material.

Cashin's sweater closet, with Iverson in a 1972 Cashin vest; dress form, Fox Sewing Machine Inc.

Her graffiti wall and fabric collage.

Her grafitti wall.

Bags circa 1968.

Leather coat and calfskin jacket. At Keni Valenti Retro Couture. Hair: Enzo Laera for Judy Casey. Makeup: Onoda at Frame. Fashion assistant: Michael Niklaus. Photographs by Brigitte Lacombe; Styled by Barbara Turk.

nytimes.com

 

[DosViolines]

Those are the images from the article, but I could've sworn she was still alive when I read it ...my memory isn't what it used to be

 

[purpleviolets]

1970s Bonnie Cashin Red Wool Dress with Snap Yoke​

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to acknowledge the light Bonnie Cashin shed on and through the fashion industry but it does take a smart woman to wear Bonnie Cashin. You will never see a Hooters girl wearing Cashin - the brilliance of the design will go so over their bleached blonde head. The women you will see wearing Bonnie Cashin are busy women who love practical, well designed pieces that aren't trendy but have a distinctive look all their own. This red wool Jasco jersey dress has mother-of-pearl snaps along the shoulder, forming a fantastic yoke that comes down over the breastbone and upper back. You can also snap all of the snaps and have a slick funnelneck collar in which to nestle your pretty little chin. Trimmed in cherry red leather, it has demilune stitched pockets at both hips and slips on simply, over the head. We've paired this with a vintage Castelbajac leather belt so it's only natural that we think you should belt it with a wide brown belt - anything from Gucci to Halston ultrasuede will do. Made for Sills, the bust measures 38", shoulder to shoulder 16.5", outer sleeve 22.5", hips up to 41" and length 44". Excellent condition. $425.00

source: enokiworld.com

 

[purpleviolets]

1970s Bonnie Cashin Leather Trimmed Wool Dress​

Long after the Japanese with their kimono and yukata but long before designers like Rick Owens and Dries Van Noten, Bonnie Cashin was Seventh Avenue's champion of layered dressing. Based on stylish practicality, Cashin's dresses, tunics, skirts and coats are meant to be piled on in infinite ways. A smart foundation piece, or a stand alone basic, this brown wool jersey dress has a large stand-up funnel collar and is trimmed in brown leather around the base of the neck. Zips in front to the hips with a big leather zipper pull, this is slightly body conscious without being sexy and looks smashing with leggings and Clergerie platform ballet shoes. Signature stitched demilune pockets on both side seams, this has a very contemporary scuba suit vibe. Made for Sills, the bust measures up to 38", shoulder to shoulder 17", hips up to 39", oiuter sleeve 21" and length 43". Excellent condition with the exception of a small, professional woven repair by the shoulder blade in back, the size of a grain of rice. sold

source: enokiworld.com

 

[purpleviolets]

1960s Bonnie Cashin Blue Suit with Leather Coat​

A perky blueberry leather coat with matching wool jersey dress from Bonnie Cashin for Sills and Co.. The coat is fitted through the shoulders and upper bodice and then flares out at the waist, widening deeper at the hem. Under such a charming piece is a blue wool turtleneck dress that sashes at the waist with a matching blueberry leather shoestring belt. The cap sleeves are cut into the bodice and the coat is lined in blueberry silk and has those fantastic signature brass turnlock closures. Pair the dress with a different Cashin coat in lime green suede or just wear the coat with jeans and a tiny Chloe tee. Balanced so the turtleneck peeps out a litle at the band collar and a touch below the hem, if you've ever gotten this wrong it looks like you're wearing a coat over nothing but your birthday suit. Bonnie, of course, gets it right. Dress bust measures 38" and hips are 38" with a length of 39.5". Coat has a shoulder span of 16", outer sleeve 21" and length 36". Both are in excellent condition. sold

source: enokiworld.com

 

[purpleviolets]

1960s Bonnie Cashin Sand Leather Suit​

Bonnie Cashin singlehandedly made leather an acceptable, if not thoroughly chic, material for proper clothing in the 50s. Not because she was some biker mama but because she knew that leather could stop wind dead in its tracks and it was durable as anything. Cashin was nothing if not practical, you see, and if it looked good but didn't perform, she wasn't interested. She was also adamant about getting her way. In the 60s, when Philip Sills suggested that Bonnie split her ponchos open and put in fasteners along the placket because women would not want to mess their hair, she stood her ground and refused. The world came around and women with long hair didn't mind pulling on outerwear over their heads. She put purses on the linings of coats and backpacks on the backs of jackets but she also designed some of the most fantastic handbags you'll ever own. Her exquisite sense of propriety in fashion and her down-to-Earth sensibilities make her the ultimate thinking woman's designer; a real woman's woman. A leather suit? Maybe nothing noteworthy these days but back then? Very progressive. Sand lamb leather cut into a band-collared jacket and full skirt. Fastening along the placket with prong closures, the seams are angled so they form a slit pocket on either side of the navel, looking very smart when you have your hands tucked. The skirt fastens at the side with a snap and hidden zipper and, of course, has deep pockets on both sides. We love the jacket worn open to reveal a hooded Bonnie Cashin bodysuit underneath and a skinny shoestring leather belt from Moo Moo Leatherworks in Brooklyn. Made for Sills, both pieces are lined in silk crepe de chine. Bust measures up to 40", shoulder to shoulder 16", outer sleeve 20" and length 28". Skirt has a 31.5" waist, 38" hips and is 22.5" long. Both pieces are in excellent condition. $520.00

source: enokiworld.com

 

[purpleviolets]

1960s Bonnie Cashin Taupe Leather Overskirt​

Oh Bonnie Bonnie Bonnie. So smart, so styllish, so wearable. One of the bigggest questions we get asked is whose closet we would raid and the answer is Bonnie. Goldie Hawn ranks up there too because, well, she was so totally iconic and hot but Bonnie wins because she is still so modern. One to absolutely practice what she preached, Bonnie didn't walk around in corseted waists and stiletto heels while espousing comfort and style for her clients - clients were supposed to want to be Bonnie. Bonnie could draw influence from any street, any person (man or woman) and make it her own. Her reinterpretation of traditional layering in countries like Japan and India weren't rip-offs, she made them accessible to our American lifestyle. You can wear a painfully simple Martin Margiela cotton dress with flat Capezio canvas ballet shoes and add a vintage Bonnie Cashin overskirt to create a fashion vibe that would have The Sartorialist chasing you down the street for photos. Taupe leather that is tissue-thin, backed in a tiny red and black plaid cotton. Snaps at the waist and lays open to reveal your skirt underneath, there are signature big pockets on either side and a beautiful tulip hem in back. Made for Sills, the waist measures 26" and length 25.5". Excellent condition. sold

source: enokiworld.com

 

[purpleviolets]

1960s Bonnie Cashin Pink Wool Boucle Jacket​

Of all the Bonnie Cashin colors in the Sills rainbow, pink is always a perennial favorite. But Bonnie didn't do just one shade of pink - noooooooooo. She did everything from strawberry ice cream to American Beauty rose, each one as close to nature as any human could ever get. She approached color with the eye of a painter and texture with the touch of a blind woman whose entire world is judged by how it feels in the hand. A gorgeous soft blue-pink wool boucle jacket trimmed in baby pink leather. Swinging out at the hem and closing along the placket with a row of brass turnlocks, the pockets "lock" and are extra deep so you can opt for no purse (but who in the hell would pass on the opportunity to show off great vintage accessories?). Welted square seams at the armhole and gathered along the upper back to form a feminine yoke, this is gorgeous with a red Sonia Rykiel skirt and Edmundo Castillo slingbacks. Bust up to 42", shoulder to shoulder 16", outer sleeve 23.5" and length 31". Excellent condition. $605.00

source: enokiworld.com

 

[purpleviolets]

1960s Bonnie Cashin Plaid Noh Coat

What better accessory does a woman need than the first flowers of Spring surrounding her on a romp through Central Park with the old pooch? Don't have a dog? Borrow one. There are plenty of friendly little fellows that would appreciate a little female company, but don't borrow too many dogs at once or you'll look like one of those freak dogwalkers with eighty baggies full of poo and a tangle of leashes. When you look like that, you could be wearing Geoffrey Beene HIMSELF as a backpack, and all people are going to see are those dogs. One or two dogs, maybe golden-hued or pale, like a lab, a really great Bonnie Cashin coat, Goat cord pants and a pair of pistachio Delman ballet flats. The clasic Noh coat with a shawl collar and large mushroom leather buckle high over the solar plexus. Muted in shades of deep wheat, mushroom and ivory, it is trimmed in mushroom leather with slighter longer-than-elbow-length sleeves and demilune pockets at both hips. A fuzzy mohair and wool blend, the weave is open so this is truly a spring and autumn coat, best layered for any warmth - it's more of a looks thing. Made for Sills and Co, this will fit a 6 or petite 8 with a length of 36". Excellent condition. sold

source: enokiworld.com

 

[purpleviolets]

I'll have more later. I have a lot of these saved on my computer because I love Bonnie Cashin's designs.

 

[SomethingElse]

Me too! The colors of her designs in winter would be such a relief in a grey city.

 

[purpleviolets]

VINTAGE BONNIE CASHIN MOHAIR COAT.

This is a delicious confection from Bonnie Cashin---the woman who the world annoints "The Inventor of American Sportswear." Though Cashin coats are all beautifully executed, some are more somber, others more playful. This particular coat is in rich shades of cranberry red, moss-emerald green, deep gold, and silvery gray, which together form an effect that glimmers in the light. The leather trim is black and the coat ties with a front leather tie (as seen in the picture above). The bust measures 44", waist: 44", hips: 48", sleeve length: 18", overall length: 38". It's in excellent condition.
SOLD

source: losthorizonvintage.com

 

[purpleviolets]

1960s Bonnie Cashin Belted Checked Wool Boucle Coat​

It's quite possible to only buy Bonnie Cashin coats and still have a closetful of outerwear that represents all your moods and styles. And that's because Cashin herself was a complex woman with many diverse talents and interests. You can be Ronnie Spector in a black leather car coat with turnlock closures one day and Doris Day wholesome the next in pale wool boucle. An oversized straw and white wool check coat, trimed in sand leather with a skinny shoestring belt. Fastens along the placket with turnlocks, there are deep demilune pockets at both hips. Made for Sills, pair this wth knit separates from Goat and flat camel boots. Unlined, the bust measures up to 42", shoulder to shoulder 15", outer sleeve 22" and length 36". Excellent condition. $495.00

source: enokiworld.com

 

[purpleviolets]

1960s Bonnie Cashin Cream Leather Tunic

There were two sides to Bonnie Cashin's personality that are clearly evident in her designs. One is the practical straight shooter and other a playful little imp. This is Cashin impishness at its finest - a cream lambskin tunic that comes over the head and buckles at the sides with an oversized leather and brass buckle. We love this with everything from a short Cacharel dress to a vintage Anne Klein wool skirt and a turtleneck. Backed in cream Jasco wool jersey, it was made for Sills and has a bust of 36" and is 27" long. Excellent condition. sold

source: enokiworld.com

 

[purpleviolets]

1960s Bonnie Cashin Coach Tobacco "Feedbag" Purse

It's that time of day when a little metaphor is in order - you are the horse and this is your feedbag, but instead of just icky old dry oats, we'll let you pretend that it's stuffed with credit cards whose statements never come to your house but always get paid. So after you've chewed your way through Bloomingdale's, you can move on to Barney's and then, even though you're a little full, you finish off at the bottom with Bergdorf Goodman. It is also the only time we're going to say "strap one on" to a woman, we promise. A tobacco leaf-brown calf feedbag by Bonnie Cashin for Coach. Absolutely perfect with a pale pink cashmere wrap coat and little Dior camel leather gloves a la Gwyneth Paltrow in "The Talented Mr. Ripley". Lousy movie, great clothes. Lined in striped signature cotton, there are two pockets, curving around the interior wall of the bag, and little feet on the bottom to protect the leather. Perky but not cutesy and the ultimate bag to compliment Cashin's colorful clothing. Measures 23" around and 14.5" high, including the handle. Excellent condition. sold

source: enokiworld.com