BETSEY JOHNSON
Betsey Johnson (born ca. 1941), dress designer for the young and young-at-heart, set fashion trends during four decades.
Fashion designer Betsey Johnson, with her red hair and perpetual ear-to-ear grin, was a colorful burst of energy in the fashion world. She first exploded onto the style scene in the swinging 1960s, a turbulent time when fashion designers were considered stuffy, pretentious, and totally out-of-touch with the growing wave of street-inspired chic and the unmistakable influence of British rock and roll on American youth culture.
In1964 She landed a coveted position as a guest editor at Mademoiselle, a young women’s fashion and lifestyle magazine.
The short-term guest editorship led her to a permanent position in the magazine’s art department. Soon she was sent by the magazine to London in the heyday of the Beatles, bell-bottoms, and belly-baring knit tops. There Carnaby Street was the eye of the style storm. Johnson was so inspired that when she returned to New York she began designing wacky wear for New York’s clothing boutique, Paraphernalia.
In 1965, Betsey Johnson led New York into a fashionable new era, creating revolutionary new fashions for the youth market.
From Betsey Johnson for the boutique Paraphernalia, to the label Alley Cat by Betsey Johnson and finally the Betsey Johnson label, Betsey always brought the fun!
During this decade, Johnson helped launch the American fashion revolution with her space age silvery sci-fi dresses, see-through plastic shifts with discreet stick-on cover-ups, a “noise dress” with metal grommets at the hem that went clink-clank when the wearer moved, elephant bell-bottoms, and 14-inch metal micro-miniskirts.
Like her clientele, Betsey was aware that strict fashion rules had fallen by the wayside in favor of a more eclectic approach to fashion.Though her designs were worn by style setters such as Julie Christie, Brigitte Bardot, Twiggy and Edie Sedgwick, they were also affordable to everyone.
Over the ensuing decades Johnson continued to be an energetic leader in fashion design. As Susie Billingsley of Vogue magazine wrote: “She got on the street fashion wagon before anyone. She’s always been way ahead of what’s hip.”
She pioneered the now commonplace use of avant garde fabrics: car interior lining and shower curtain dresses. She imported a wool pinstripe material used for the original New York Yankee’s baseball uniform for her “gangster suits.”
A true collector’s item, this 1960s emerald green pantsuit was among designer Betsey Johnson’s earliest creations in her career, at the peak of the “Youthquake” movement. Designed for the ultra-hip New York boutique, Paraphernalia, the slender silhouette of this velvet ensemble features a jacket seemingly inspired by the ever-popular Nehru Jacket (which also inspired designers the likes of Pierre Cardin), and hip-hugging, slightly-flared trousers with a high cuff.In 1970, she left Paraphernalia to assume creative control of Alley Cat, a youthful sportswear brand where she continued to design clothes with bright colours, outlandish patterns and sexy fits.
After this quick rise to the top of the fashion world however her career stagnated. By the mid-1970s, Johnson’s youthful demographic “moved up to work and dress-for-work clothes, and my customer disappeared.” Alley Cat went out of business and Johnson sustained herself with freelance work designing children’s and maternity clothes. “I thought it was all over until Punk started in London,” she recalls. “It felt like a reincarnation of the 60s. It felt the same as when I was 22.”
In 1978, revived by the punk movement she partnered with ex-model Chantal Bacon to start their own company the Betsey Johnson label. Together they opened Johnson’s first retail store in Manhattan’s fashionable SoHo neighbourhood. The company currently has 65 stores worldwide including locations in London, Toronto and Tokyo.Betsey’s line has also expanded to include many new categories of merchandise such as:Handbags,Accessories,Lingerie,Eyewear, Footwear