UCLA Library Special Collections houses the archive of one of the country’s most influential — if unsung — clothing designers. The Library aims to begin a new chapter for textile scholarship on campus with its Cashin collection at the forefront.
ONE OF A KIND
“Born in another century,” Cashin explained, “I would have been in the couture.” One-of-a-kind pieces were her “designer’s joy,” constantly produced in the studios that she called “secret laboratories” and never meant for or made available on the market. Cashin’s poetic nature, plays on clothing history and sculptor’s eye for shape defined much of this work. Her turkey feather pieces epitomize this, with each feather hand-applied, broadcasting her witty twists on familiar dress forms as well as the ways in which birds effortlessly adapt to their environment and symbolize liberation.
THE RIGHT WORDS
Identifying as an artist whose best friends were books, Cashin found never-ending inspiration in both custom-mixing colors and voraciously reading. Always carrying art supplies and books that she wanted to have access to while also keeping her hands and arms free, she asked her mother to sew handbags directly onto her clothes. The “purse pocket” eventually evolved into a Cashin design signature. Just as practical was her system of organizing and enjoying the words that she loved, by writing quotes from her intellectual heroes on what she termed the “graffiti hallways” in her homes.
SEAMS PERFECT
Though she despised patternmaking, Cashin adored and insisted on pattern matching. Raised in the back room of her mother’s custom dress shop, she described her upbringing as “being born with a silver thimble in my mouth, and I have been on pins and needles ever since.” To her, nothing was more important than the lessons learned from her mother, Eunice, about the significance of a “fine seam.” Even after she had reached the heights of fame in fashion, Cashin asked her mother to teach her manufacturers how to properly pattern, piece and sew her designs.
WOOF WOOF
Cashin’s “dog leash skirts” were at once material rebuttals to restrictive evening wear and amusing sartorial responses to the challenges of hosting guests at her drafty country house — namely, tripping on her skirts while carrying drinks and trays of canapés. Since Cashin was usually warding off a chill, her collection of mohair blankets became grand ball skirts, and brazen clips at the hip allowed her to quickly raise and drop the hem as desired. It was the first use of mohair in fashion. After seeing it widely copied in Paris, Diana Vreeland rushed Cashin’s design into the November 1957 issue of Harper’s Bazaar.
EXECUTING THE VISION
Cashin fabrics were produced to her specifications by firms that typically worked with couture houses. Highly skilled craftspeople at legendary textile companies across the United Kingdom were enlisted to please her discerning eye. Mapping out her cashmere intarsia designs, overcoming baffling instructions to create “carpet-weight” materials to maintain shape without infrastructure, and following her emphatic asks for “big, BIG” patterns, they followed Cashin’s lead in disregarding what the bottom line might be. Her love of devising her own graphic patterns dominated this practice, as well as her own paintings and logo designs.
LOCK IT UP
It was Cashin who coined the fashion terms “layering” and “hardware.” Of the latter, the most iconic are her turn locks, stemming from memories of quickly battening down the top of the convertible she drove in 1940s Hollywood. They served as functional and clever closures, not only industrial but also indicating that her clients were on the go. Her signature hardware appeared in every category of her fashion designs, most famously applied to handbags when she launched the 1960s leather goods firm Coach with Miles and Lillian Cahn.
Note: Garments and items depicted were owned and created by Bonnie Cashin and are now privately owned by the Lake family. These items from the Lake family's Bonnie Cashin Archive —some previously unseen — are represented in photographs and sketches included in the Bonnie Cashin Collection of Fashion, Theater and Film Costume Design within UCLA Library Special Collections.
Photography by Michael Haug • Styling and Text by Stephanie Lake • Hair & Makeup by Fatima Olive