Born: Oakland, California, USA, 1915
Years ahead of her time, Bonnie Cashin was both an innovator and experimentalist. In the mid-1930s she became costume designer for Manhattan’s Roxy Theatre, where she learnt the principles of movement and shape. Spotted by sportswear supremo Louis Adler, Cashin designed for his company, Adler and Adler, for over a decade. In 1953 she reverted to the freelance lifestyle. While the silhouette of the 1950s dictated cinched waists and tight fits, Cashin stayed true to her principles of modernity and purity. Her timeless shapes, based on triangles, rectangles and squares, formed the foundation of American fashion in the twentieth century.
