Geoffrey Beene
Geoffrey Beene’s inventive geometric cuts and understanding of the human body allowed him to produce some of the most innovative clothes of his generation. Regarded as a “the architect of American clothing,” Geoffrey Beene approached fashion design with the precision of a technician and the eye of an artist, creating clothes that glorified the female form. “The body is a miracle, not to be abused,” he once said. “I’ve never made a vulgar dress.” His designs have been worn by many notable women, including Paloma Picasso, Agnes Gund, and Grace Mirabella.
Beene was born in Louisiana in 1927. As a young man, he bowed to family tradition and enrolled in medical school, but he dropped out after his third year. “Cadavers were the moment of truth,” Beene would later recall, yet from this experience he began to develop the keen understanding of human anatomy that would later inform his designs. He studied fashion in New York and Paris—where he apprenticed with a tailor for the couturier Molyneux—and in 1965 launched his own company on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. During the 1970s, Beene experimented with less structured fabrics in order to produce softer, more fluid designs. However, it wasn’t until the 1980s that Beene initiated what he called his “true glorification of the body.”
Beene’s designs fuse beauty with functionalism; that is, they sculpt the body while permitting fluid movement. Through his use of curved seaming techniques, sheer panels, and deliberate color changes that serve to accentuate specific areas, Beene focused his designs on parts of the female body to which other designers usually pay scant attention, parts such as the nape of the neck and the side of the hip. He also found beauty in mixing the high with the low. His 1967 sequined football jersey evening dress, for example, playfully introduced the idea of sportswear for evening. His pairing of contrasting fabrics and textures, such as melton wool and point d’esprit lace, gave his designs a playful, irreverent quality. Such juxtapositions quickly became established as Beene’s design signature.
Always putting fashion above commerce, Beene refused to compromise his high standards. He engaged in longstanding feuds with some prominent members of the fashion press, including Women’s Wear Daily; as a result, Beene’s work was seldom covered. However, he was honored with a solo retrospective at The Museum at FIT in 1994. He mentored a generation of designers whose impact on the fashion world has been immeasurable: Issey Miyake, Michael Vollbracht, Alber Elbaz, Doori Chung—all worked for Geoffrey Beene. He was a designer who forged his own path, defying conventions throughout a lengthy career, and Geoffrey Beene was still working when he died in 2004.
