How legendary fashion designer Bill Blass elevated American sportswear to couture

Simple, yet sophisticated. Relaxed, yet glamorous. Nostalgic, yet modern. Whether working with a black-and-white palette or a full spectrum of colour, Bill Blass possessed a gift for making any ensemble look effortlessly elegant. Over the second half of the 20th century, the award-winning designer transformed the fashion industry, putting American sportswear on the map when French couture had long reigned supreme. During his lifetime, when the Garment District was the epicentre of New York City’s fashion production, Blass became known as both ‘the hardest working man’ and the ‘king’ of Seventh Avenue, paving the way for a new generation of designers.

Ralph Lauren praised Blass as ‘the greatest’; Issey Miyake dubbed him ‘the quintessential American designer’; and Giorgio Armani described the Blass customer as always embodying ‘what it means to be a lady — feminine, graceful and chic.’ Blass’s sharp eye, combined with his ‘famously funny and devilish’ personality, as described by Anna Wintour, garnered an impressive clientele.

‘His client list bridged the full range of what American womanhood looked like at its most formidable: Katharine Graham, who ran the Washington Post through Watergate; Nancy Reagan, who understood the White House as its own theatre of power; Gloria Vanderbilt, who built a business empire from her own name; Barbara Walters, who redefined what a woman could be on television,’ says fashion designer Peter Som, a former creative director of Bill Blass. ‘These were not women who dressed to please anyone but themselves, and they returned to Blass season after season because he understood that — and built it into every garment he designed.’

After having offered the remarkable collections of some of his foremost clients, including Nancy Reagan, Jayne Wrightsman and Mica Ertegun, Christie’s will present Bill Blass: American Elegance, an online sale specially curated by Som. Coinciding with New York Fashion Week — and continuing Christie’s celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary — more than 100 looks from the Bill Blass archive, as well as letters and sketches, will comprise the auction, which runs from 9-23 September.

A selection of Bill Blass highlights will be on view as part of the Christie’s September Fashion Auctions exhibition, open to the public at Rockefeller Center from 9-13 September, alongside costumes and memorabilia from The Devil Wears Prada 2 and showstopping bags from Handbags Online: The New York Edit.

Further highlights will be on view from 18-22 September at the Bill Blass townhouse nearby (3 East 44th Street).

The Bill Blass look: easy on the eyes and body

Women’s Wear Daily wrote that Blass ‘seemed to be the consummate New Yorker, who designed clothes for the consummate New York woman.’ While designers like Claire McCardell and Bonnie Cashin were pioneering forces in American sportswear, Blass diversified the field, producing impeccable garments to suit every occasion, as women’s roles themselves were dramatically evolving. ‘The decades that Bill Blass spent designing — from the late 1950s through the end of the century — were decades in which the American woman was reinventing herself at lightning speed,’ says Som. ‘She was entering the workforce in numbers that had no precedent, moving from the living room to the boardroom, from the charity luncheon to the corner office. The question of what she should look like while doing all of this — how to dress for a life that no longer fit neatly into any single category — was one that Blass answered.’

Indeed, as Tom Ford once declared, ‘Bill Blass did for fashion in America what Yves Saint Laurent did for fashion in France. Bill Blass gave American women their uniform — modern, clean, chic clothes that are timeless.’ Though his materials and silhouettes ran the gamut (he was as known for incorporating fabrics traditionally found in menswear as he was for glittering beading), Blass’s signature look consistently exuded a relaxed elegance. ‘A certain nonchalance is always a constant in American clothes,’ said Blass. ‘Having the confidence to mix things up is very American.’

Examples of Blass’s unexpected looks, as described by Som, included: ‘A cashmere cardigan worn backwards and knotted at the small of the back atop a slither of a sequined skirt. A strapless gray worsted day dress pleated to dance with each step. A men’s dressing gown, now soirée-ready in shimmering gilded devoré velvet with matching pajama pants that were less boudoir and more ballroom. These were sportswear ideas executed in couture-level materials — the silhouette deliciously déshabillé yet razor sharp.’

‘Jackets that look like works of art’

Blass also had a penchant for bold colour and print, perhaps, further refined through his love of art and design. He passionately built a collection featuring modern artworks by Pablo Picasso, Isamu Noguchi and Helen Frankenthaler, alongside Old Masters, Italian antiquities, Regency-period furniture and more. ‘Bill has an eye for beautiful art and fabrics along with great style and taste,’ Frankenthaler, a friend of Blass’s who frequently wore his designs, once said. ‘He has a creative sense of extravagant simplicity.’

Blass’s passion for art came through most vividly in two jaw-dropping collections during the 1980s and 1990s. For his Spring/Summer 1988 collection, Blass took inspiration from the 1986-7 exhibition, Henri Matisse: The Early Years in Nice 1916–1930, at Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art. Working with Indian artisans, Blass reimagined the French master’s floral still lifes and sun-drenched interiors in intricately beaded and sequined jackets and gowns that he deemed ‘investment pieces — just as a painting would be.’

In his Fall/Winter 1995 collection, the models, whose luminous ensembles paid homage to Gustav Klimt’s kaleidoscopic paintings, graced the runway. Reviewing the collection, The New York Times wrote: ‘Bill Blass doesn't dress the hip young crowd who care more about style than quality. He dresses women who are willing to spend a lot of money on clothes but want value for their dollars. Women who want what they wear to look and feel expensive, and to be in fashion for more than a season…His customers appreciate the feel of fine woolens and alpacas, of silks satins and silk chiffons. They cherish the luxury of hand-painted velvet and of totally beaded jackets that look like works of art.’

From humble beginnings in Indiana to the talk of the town in New York

The son of a hardware salesman and dressmaker, William Ralph Blass was born in 1922 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Idolising the screen sirens he saw in Hollywood films (Carole Lombard was his favourite) and the models in magazines, Blass sketched constantly as a child and even sold some of his fashion sketches to brands when he was just a teenager. In 1940 he moved to New York to pursue a career in fashion, though three years later, he enlisted in the Army, where he was assigned to a top-secret specialised counterintelligence unit (the Ghost Army) due to his intelligence and artistic aptitude. His primary responsibility was painting decoy rubber tanks to impersonate other Allied troops.

After more than 20 battlefield engagements, including the Battle of the Bulge, Blass returned to New York, where in 1962, he’d become one of the founding members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). After a stint with the designer Anne Klein, Blass worked for Anna Miller whose fashion firm later merged with her brother Maurice Rentrer’s company. In 1970 — three years after he became the first American luxury designer to launch a menswear line — Blass purchased the firm, renaming it Bill Blass Limited.

A consummate businessman and promoter, Blass embraced being the face of what would become his fashion empire, even modelling his clothing in the company’s advertisements (some bearing the slogan ‘Positively Blassphemous’). Blass’s charismatic persona charmed customers (he often made appearances in department stores across America) and cemented his fame as a celebrity in his own right — it also made him a fixture at all of Manhattan’s top parties.

During the early 1970s the designer launched Blassport, a more accessibly priced diffusion line. Further contributing to his mass appeal, Blass lent his name to dozens of licenses, including swimwear, luggage, perfume and chocolate, anticipating the fashion-as-lifestyle-brand phenomenon that has become ubiquitous today.

The Battle of Versailles and Blass’s legacy of American fashion

In the annals of fashion history, one of the 20th century’s most defining events was the ‘Battle of Versailles,’ as the press would coin the Grand Divertissement à Versailles in 1973. The affair was intended to be a showcase of the leading French and American fashion designers that would raise funds for the historic chateau’s dire restoration. In reality, however, it became far more cutthroat, with the underdog Americans wanting to prove their propensity for dressing the modern woman.

Representing France in the first half of the program were five couturiers: Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Marc Bohan for Christian Dior, Pierre Cardin and Emanuel Ungaro, followed by the Americans: Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, Halston, Stephen Burrows and Anne Klein. Blass’s looks for the evening paid homage to the Roaring Twenties with pleated chiffon skirts and slinky sequined frocks.

Complementing the designers were various performers, including ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev and burlesque performer Josephine Baker for France. America’s sole performer, Liza Minnelli, set the tone for a vivacious stage upon which the models (nearly one quarter of whom were Black — another milestone at the time) glided and delighted. The nonchalance of American ready-to-wear was an undeniable triumph, making the French structured garments feel fussy and outdated. The International Herald Tribune reviewed the spectacle in the article ‘Americans Steal the Show at Versailles Gala,’ noting that ‘The real surprise was that American fashion has come of age. The French can no longer ignore it.’

Over the subsequent nearly 30 years, Blass became one of America’s most decorated designers. He won three Coty American Fashion Critics Awards, as well as the first American Fashion Critics’ Men’s Coty Award. He was additionally the recipient of both the Fashion Institute of Technology’s and the CFDA’s Lifetime Achievement Awards — the latter also honoured him with its first Humanitarian Leadership Award. In addition to supporting AIDS programs, Blass made a substantial contribution to the New York Public Library who named the public catalogue room at its main branch after him. Blass’s personal style also won him a spot on the International Best-Dressed List Hall of Fame.

Blass died in 2002, though his mark on the fashion industry was indelible. ‘The designers who came after him — Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan — built entire empires on the proposition that Blass had already proved: that American women wanted to look glamorous without suffering for it,’ says Som. And today when life is busier than ever, comfort may just be the ultimate currency.

Bill Blass Townhouse Viewing Times, 3 East 44th Street:

Thursday, 18 September: 1:00-6:00 PM
Friday, 19 September: 1:00-6:00 PM
Saturday, 20 September: 1:00-5:00 PM
Sunday, 21 September: 1:00-5:00 PM
Monday, 22 September: 1:00-6:00 PM