Bonnie Cashin

“Simple clothes lend themselves to personal dressing.” This was Bonnie Cashin’s fashion philosophy. An avid observer of American life, Cashin created eminently practical, uncomplicated clothing that catered to the independent woman of the post-war era. Renowned for her loose-fitting sportswear, Cashin developed clothing concepts, such as modular wardrobes for the modern woman on the go, that today are essential fashion concepts. In 1978, New York Times fashion writer Bernadine Morris called Cashin “an American fashion institution.”

A California native, Cashin had a series of careers before settling into fashion design, each of which informed her subsequent work. She designed costumes for dance and then theatre, learning from both the importance of the body in motion. In 1943, she went to work for Twentieth Century Fox, where she designed wardrobes for over 60 films. This experience further enhanced her work; she learned to consider the whole character when designing and later intentionally would later gear her clothes for a particular lifestyle and “character,” proclaiming, “I like to design clothes for a woman who plays a particular role in life.” After a number of years working with the ready-to-wear firm Adler and Adler, Cashin opened her own business in 1952. Her design influence was so great that there were Cashin departments in chic stores in Paris and London. In 1962, Cashin became the first designer for the women’s division at Coach, a leather accessories company, where her handbags and wallets were characterized by their innovative use of hardware materials.

Cashin’s design hallmarks included her use of tweed, leather, and canvas. Funnel-necked sweaters (whose neckline doubled as a hood), deep pockets, turn-key metal closings, “pocketbook” pockets with latch closures, and leather piping are all key features of her designs. An avid traveler, Cashin was enthusiastically interested in cultures from all over the world. “Travel is my education,” Cashin once said. “Even if I don’t use an idea right away, it’s there.” Favoring simply cut garments that moved fluidly with the body, she adapted a number of basic clothing models from international dress, including the Mexican poncho, the Japanese kimono, and the Arabian aba. Indeed, it was Cashin’s form-follows-function approach to fashion that informed her work and made her an innovative force in American sportswear design.