Done
Chicago, IL, United States
Auction Details
Property From The Geoffrey Beene Archive
Geoffrey Beene (1924-2004) was one of the greatest American fashion designers of
the 20th century and an iconic figure in the emergence of the American fashion
industry after WWII. Beene was a pioneering force in a new generation of designers
that sought to create an American style independent from the dictates of Parisian
Haute Couture. After studying fashion in New York and Paris, Beene began working
in the New York fashion industry in 1951, during a period in which the American
fashion industry largely existed to create designs inspired by European couture
traditions. At the time, most American designers worked for manufacturers, whose
name appeared on the label, rather than the name of the designer. Geoffrey Beene
became one of the first American fashion designers to launch his own line and to
use his own name.
Following Geoffrey Beene’s death from cancer in 2004, his personal collection of
nearly 2000 designs, dating back to the 1950s, were donated to Memorial Sloan
Kettering by the Geoffrey Beene Foundation to support new research at the Geoffrey
Beene Cancer Research Center. Illustrations and photographs, which are now owned
by the Geoffrey Beene Foundation, are also part of the archive and survive to this
day. Together, these two collections form the Geoffrey Beene Archive, which
Hindman will auction on Nov 20, 2019. Proceedings of the sale will benefit the
Geoffrey Beene Cancer Research Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
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