{"id":1525504,"date":"2022-06-22T08:05:36","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T12:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1525504"},"modified":"2022-06-22T08:06:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T12:06:00","slug":"american-success-story-and-designer-bill-blass-turns-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/american-success-story-and-designer-bill-blass-turns-100\/","title":{"rendered":"American Success Story And Designer Bill Blass Turns 100"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Famerican-success-story-and-designer-bill-blass-turns-100%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1525504&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/image-2022-06-20T160147.089.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>June 22 marks the 100th birthday of fashion designer Bill Blass, who passed away in 2002 at the age of 79. But don\u2019t expect any invitations to arrive for New York-based festivities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To celebrate the iconic fashion designer, one must travel west 647 miles. Despite the fact that his personal and professional life were based in New York for more than 60 years, all significant celebrations in honor of Blass will take place in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana.<\/p>\n<p>The Bill Blass Blast, beginning June 22 and lasting 100 days, will feature a variety of events and exhibits at different venues, including the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and The Fort Wayne History Center. Bill Blass special edition Lincoln cars will be on display at a local dealership, and sculptor Greg Mendez has been commissioned to develop six statues that will each highlight Bill Blass designs.<\/p>\n<p>Blass was a fashion industry pioneer, one of the first to license his name to products beyond clothing, including fragrance, furniture, and chocolate. He was the first couturier to create a menswear collection (in 1967), and one of the first American designers to step out from behind his design table, putting his name and face on a label.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"aSPN96d5Us4wQ3AuzZoKgTtiFepGqX108JLEbYnCjRIVl2f7mBMDcWr\"><\/p>\n[embedded content]\n<p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Just why are 7th Avenue and New York in general turning a blind eye to Blass? Is the designer\u2019s 100th birthday being ignored because he is old news, part of the past, and not modern or edgy enough, given fashion\u2019s obsession with The Next Great Thing? Part of me hoped this was the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yet the museum of my alma mater, the Fashion Institute of Technology, currently features an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fitnyc.edu\/museum\/exhibitions\/dior-balenciaga.php#:~:text=Dior%20%2B%20Balenciaga%3A%20The%20Kings%20of%20Couture%20and%20Their%20Legacies%20features,Balenciaga%20(1895%E2%80%931972).\">exhibit<\/a> highlighting the careers of two designers who predate Blass, Christian Dior and Balenciaga, as \u201cThe Kings of Couture and Their Legacies.\u201d After inquiries and investigation of the school\u2019s website, I found no evidence of America\u2019s most iconic designer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Blass hasn\u2019t always been snubbed. In the 1970s and 80s, he ruled the New York fashion world; his designs and image appeared regularly in \u201cVogue\u201d and \u201cWomen\u2019s Wear Daily.\u201d The Bill Blass effect even traveled south to Washington. <\/p>\n<p>In 1981, he became the first fashion designer to stage a show\/fundraiser at the Phillips Collection. The show almost instantly sold out, and even President and Nancy Reagan made an appearance. Nina Hyde, a longtime fashion critic at The Washington Post, wrote, \u201cBill Blass is the designer of the 1980s. \u2026 He offers women pretty, glamorous clothes \u2014 modern without being jolting, sexy without being scary.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"4SXZnoPUtGqd5NYhGSeFx4C6wOnAmiQuRylfOeUjIrk9PL5I1HirWo1QTcwVWqJ8YzsfMxZRsth\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A week from today is Bill Blass&#8217;s birthday! In honor of his 100th birthday, FWMoA is proud to present Bill Blass: Fort Wayne\u2019s Fashion Designer. This exhibition is presented in conjunction w\/ the History Center, where they also have an exhibit Check them both out on Wed! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/fwmoa?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#fwmoa<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sfDGM6q7Tw\">pic.twitter.com\/sfDGM6q7Tw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 FortWayneMuseumofArt (@FWMoA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FWMoA\/status\/1537103328894664711?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 15, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"BganTGAqY5FPXz6rQt\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Fashion can be bought by anybody; style takes discernment, it has to do with individuality.&#8221; ~Bill Blass, who died on this day in 2002<\/p>\n<p>Photo: Patrick Humphreys, Bill Blass in his New York studio, c. 1970s. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jHsOiDjBss\">pic.twitter.com\/jHsOiDjBss<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Miss Rosen (@Miss_Rosen) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Miss_Rosen\/status\/1536034373358821380?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 12, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"6MJ3d\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UnD%C3%ADaHomoHoy?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UnD\u00edaHomoHoy<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/12junio?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#12junio<\/a> de 2002: Falleci\u00f3 en New Preston, Washington, Connecticut, Estados Unidos, William Ralph Blass (Bill Blass), fue dise\u00f1ador de modas estadounidense. <br \/>Recibi\u00f3 el CFDA Lifetime Achievement Award en el a\u00f1o 1986.<br \/>\ud83d\udc57\ud83d\udc55\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf2 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VExl01tI7D\">pic.twitter.com\/VExl01tI7D<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 efemeridesmundiales\ud83c\udf0e (@efemeridestoday) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/efemeridestoday\/status\/1535959686335369217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 12, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In 1983, when I graduated from F.I.T., then as now an avant-garde fashion haven, Blass was our commencement speaker.\u00a0No protesters or bomb threats interrupted his presentation. In 1999, F.I.T. gave him a Lifetime Achievement award.\u00a0Earlier, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) granted Blass a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, and its first Humanitarian Leadership Award in 1996.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>New York City has also benefitted from his bountiful philanthropy, including a $10-million-dollar donation to the New York Public Library, and substantial gifts to the AIDS Care Center at Cornell University, also located in Manhattan.<\/p>\n<p>So how is it that no significant celebrations of the designer\u2019s 100th birthday will be held in New York? Given the state of contemporary culture, it is possible that Bill Blass was simply not woke enough to attract attention from the industry to which he devoted so much of his life and talent.\u00a0Here are some indications of that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bill Blass the War Veteran<\/strong>:<strong> <\/strong>Blass served in the 603rd Camouflage Battalion in England, the so-called \u201cGhost Army,\u201d which specialized in tactical deceptions orchestrated to fool the Nazis.\u00a0The unit was full of creative men, including the abstract painter, sculptor, and printmaker Ellsworth Kelly. <\/p>\n<p>Although modest about his personal contribution to the war effort, Blass does write in his memoir \u201cBare Blass\u201d: \u201cI am indeed <em>one <\/em>of the American soldiers whose decoy lines of inflatable rubber tanks fooled Van Ramcke in August 1944, allowing Patton to slip past and bowl on to Paris.\u201d The Second World War taught Blass, as he said later, that \u201cI could survive anything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Ladies He Dressed, The Company He Kept<\/strong>: Although recent celebrities such as Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson, and Jessica Biel have been photographed on the red carpet in his dresses, Blass is best known for having dressed and socialized with many prominent conservative ladies, including Nancy Reagan, Pat Buckley (of whom he wrote, \u201cI\u2019ve never had as much fun with anyone in my life as I\u2019ve had with Mrs. Buckley\u201d), Nan Kempner, Nancy Kissinger, Annette de la Renta, and Brooke Astor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bill Blass Did Not Flaunt His Sexuality: <\/strong>Blass, who is thought to have been gay, had many close friends, both male and female, and a few lowkey relationships, but he preferred to keep his private life private. \u201cAlthough I have never made any attempt to conceal my sexuality,\u201d he wrote, \u201cneither have I ever wanted to flaunt it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was a traditionalist, a purveyor of classic elegance. \u201cThe clothes always had a really American look,\u201d Nan Kempner said. \u201cGlamour he gave, but it was the easiest kind.\u201d Blass\u2019s designs were considered quintessentially American, influenced by his relaxed Midwestern upbringing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll my experiences, all my yearnings, have been those of a typical American boy becoming a typical American man, except that my focus was on clothes rather than on oil drilling or banking or some other great commodity,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt was a typical American success story after all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That Americanness may not earn him many admirers in today\u2019s woke fashion world. But Bill Blass should be remembered for his extraordinary philanthropic contributions, as well as the way he revolutionized American fashion, paving the way for young designers even today.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Beth Herman is an artist, essayist, and school docent at The National Gallery of Art. In addition to The Federalist, her essays have been published in The Wall Street Journal, Legal Times, The Washington Times, and on NPR. When not at her easel or writing desk, Beth can be found out running with her husband of over 35 years, author and historian Arthur Herman. Read more of her essays at <a href=\"https:\/\/releasethebeast.home.blog\/%E2%80%9C\">Release the Beast \u2013 Beth for Beth&#8217;s Sake<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>June 22 marks the 100th birthday of fashion designer Bill Blass, who passed away in 2002 at the age of 79. But don\u2019t expect any invitations to arrive for New<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":710,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1525504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/710"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1525504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1525504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1525504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1525504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}