From America’s heartland sprung a fashion industry giant

Fort Wayne native Bill Blass, who died this summer at age 79, captured the essence of American chic. A retrospective of his work, which he helped plan, opens at the IU Art Museum in Bloomington Oct. 5.

By Susan Williams

“Indiana, Indiana...don’t tell me he is from Indiana. They ALL come from Indiana. It may be a horrible snowy, deserty place–I don’t know, I’ve never been in the middle west. But all of you who come from there–that I admire, that I love and are good friends of mine–all have this great sort of serenity of spirit.
–Diana Vreeland (1906-1989)

“Indiana, Indiana...don’t tell me he is from Indiana,” once said Vogue editor Diana Vreeland of fashion designer Bill Blass. “They all come from Indiana. It may be a horrible, snowy, deserty place—I don’t know, I’ve never been in the middle west. But all of you who come from there—that I admire, that I love and are good friends of mine—all have this great sort of serenity of spirit.”

And that spirit may have been part of what made Hoosier Bill Blass become the very representation of casual but elegant American style.

In a retrospective display, the IU Art Museum in Bloomington will examine Blass’ work in an exhibit that opens Oct. 5. Kathleen Rowold, chair of the Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design and curator of IU’s Elizabeth Sage Historic Costume Collection, is curator of the Blass exhibit, which was planned with Blass’ cooperation, before his death at age 79 in June. The designer made his first trip to the IU Bloomington campus in 1999. He met with students, toured the IU Art Museum and agreed that his first retrospective should be organized by IU.

Included in the retrospective will be some of his first childhood drawings, working sketches and more than 100 ensembles that showcase fashion in the last 50 years.

Born and reared in Fort Wayne, Blass defined American chic—described as casual sophistication and self-confident, even defiant, personal style. He was one of the first Americans to design men’s as well as women’s clothing. And, perhaps most importantly, he propelled the fashion design industry into the public eye, becoming the first designer to have his name appear on the manufacturer’s label.

Despite being called the “King of Seventh Avenue” by some in the industry, Blass, in true Hoosier fashion, never took himself too seriously or considered his work that important.

“Fashion is a craft and an expression of a period of time, but it is not an art,” he once said. “It is pretentious to be in awe of it.”

The IU Art Museum, on Seventh Street at the heart of the Bloomington campus, is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and on Sunday, noon-5 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays and major holidays. All exhibits are free.

IU’s Sage Collection, founded in 1937, is both a teaching resource and a quality museum collection of more than 19,000 items. The Sage Collection focuses on dress and adornment as elements of art, material culture and social history, as well as high fashion.

http://www.indiana.edu/%7Eamid/sage/sage.html