Born: Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA, 1922
Died: Died Connecticut, USA, 2002
Bill Blass possesses the three key ingredients of a successful American designer: a good eye for design, a shrewd business brain and a personality that charms the birds off the trees. His talent for licensing is legendary: Blassport sportswear was launched in 1972 and his signature perfume in 1978; other products include swimwear, jeans, bedlinen and shoes.
Blass came to New York when he was 17 years old and spent _a brief spell as a sketch artist before becoming a sergeant in the army. He designed at Anna Miller and Company, New York, and then moved on to Seventh Avenue's Maurice Retner, where he was so successful that his was one of the first American designer's names to appear on the label. On Retner's retirement, Blass became the owner and in 1973 Bill Blass Limited was born.
Blass has won countless awards including the Coty American Fashion Critics' Award, which he has won three times, and the Gentlemen's Quarterly Award in 1981. On 25 May 1999 he received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fashion Institute of Technology. He holds three Honorary Doctorate degrees and was one of the founder members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). President Reagan appointed Blass to the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities in 1987. In January 1994 he contributed $10 million to the New York Public Library, which now has a public reading room in his name.
