Cynthia Rowley

• Born: Barrington, Illinois, 29 July 1958.
• Education: Studied art at Arizona State University, graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago, 1981.
• Family: Married Tom Sullivan, 1988 (died, 1994).
• Career: Senior at the Art Institute when she sold an 18-piece collection to Marshall Fields; moved to New York, 1983, incorporated business, 1988; designed costumes for dance troupes and films (including Three of Hearts and Dream Lover); produced shoes, ready-to-wear, sportswear, dresses; introduced line of girl's dresses, 1991; taught at Parsons School of Design, New York, 1992-93; critic, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, 1992-94, and Marist College, New York, 1994; coauthored Swell: A Girl's Guide to the Good Life, 1995; opened Chicago store, 1995; opened Los Angeles store, 1996; signed licensing deal with Cheil Industries for Asia, 1996; introduced menswear, 1997; teamed up with Keds for shoe line, 1998; announced partnership with Pegasus Apparel Group, 2000.
• Exhibitions:Objects of Their Appreciation, Interart Center, New York, 1993; linen exhibition, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, 1993; Dupont/Lycra exhibition, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, 1994.
• Collections: Metropolitan Museum of Art Fashion Video Library, New York; Fashion Institute of Technology Permanent Collection, New York; Fashion Resource Center, Chicago Art Institute.
• Awards: New York Finalist, Entrepreneur of the Year, Forbes magazine, 1994; Council of Fashion Designers Perry Ellis award for New Fashion Talent, 1994.
• Address: 550 Seventh Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, NY, USA.

Cynthia Rowley does not think clothes should be taken too seriously; nor does she believe style and individuality must necessarily go hand in hand with a high price tag. Rowley is known for a line of dresses that are charming, easily affordable, and utterly distinctive. This winning combination enabled her sales to double twice within three years during the mid-1990s while some of her better-known colleagues had to retrench.

Rowley's clothes reflect her well-developed sense of play. Drawing on shared and familiar elements of popular American culture, she elevates the mundane, rethinking and transforming the cliché to produce garments that arrest and amuse. Yet she is careful not to push a joke too far—her clothes, though with a sense of humor for daily use, are not novelty items to be quickly discarded. Instances of her quirky style include a long, snap-fronted sleeveless dress of quilted rayon and acetate satin worn over a matching ribbed cotton turtleneck for fall 1992, with a reference to the classic hunter's vest simultaneously reinforced and subverted by a six-pack of Budweiser slung low on the model's hip.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the bottle cap, Rowley scattered them across the front of a sleeveless cotton sweater, one half of a twin set with an eye-catching twist. Her spring 1993 collection included sundresses of classic red and white tablecloth checks, supported by straps made from plastic fruits and vegetables. "I definitely like to have a little sense of whimsy with everything," she said in a 1992 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.

Rowley's more traditional dresses also incorporate styling elements not often seen at her end of the market. A halter dress becomes suitable for the office when cut from classic pinstripes and paired with a white shirt. She understands that the basics need not bore and that an imaginative dialogue between cut and fabric can produce distinctive clothing in any price range. She captured renewed attention in 1995, dubbed The Year of the Dress, for her feminine, fun to wear dresses. The Council of Fashion Designers awarded her the Perry Ellis award for New Fashion Talent in 1994, even though she had been in the business for 12 years.

Rowley's approachable collections move from down-to-earth casual to fanciful fun. In 2001, Rowley explored the popular interest in denim by presenting new shapes in puffed-sleeve dresses and also mixed jeans with dressier pieces. In her fall 2001 show, she produced a circus complete with mimes and jugglers and showed two-tone skirts and mismatched stockings. While always comfortable, Rowley's clothes can also be more sophisticated, like coordinated tailored jackets, skirts, and trousers or linen suits in 1998. Rowley designs dresses and sportswear and holds licensing arrangements for lingerie, coats, shoes, handbags, and other accessories. Her lines are sold in five company-owned stores in the U.S., department stores, and in-store boutiques in Japan.

For years, Rowley has been designing clothes for a woman with a carefree life loaded with style and bravado. In 1995 Rowley and friend Ilene Rosenzweig, a New York Times writer, packaged this ideal woman in their book Swell: A Girl's Guide to the Good Life. The popular book went through five printings and was translated into five languages. Rowley and Rosenzweig were preparing two sequels and making plans for a television spin-off. Rowley, of course, welcomes the opportunity to design the television wardrobes.

Publications

By Rowley:

Books
• Swell: A Girl's Guide to the Good Life, with Ilene Rosenzweig, New York, 1999.

On Rowley:

Books
• McBride, Mary, Wedding Dress, New York, 1993.
• Bartlett, L., Feast for Life, Chicago, 1994.
• Stegemeyer, Anne, Who's Who in Fashion, Third Edition, New York, 1996.

Articles
• Finkelstein, Anita J., "Rowley Revs Up," in WWD, 6 January 1992.
• "Cynthia Rowley Rises and Shines," in Mademoiselle, March 1992.
• Goodman, Wendy, "Living with Style," in HG (New York), May 1992.
• Levine, Lisbeth, "A Sense of Whimsy," in the Chicago Sun-Times, 3 May 1992.
• Goodman, Wendy, "Fashion Designer Cynthia Rowley Serves Up 1940s Tablecloths…," in HG, May 1993.
• Spindler, Amy M., "Fresh Talents Dish Up Tasty Design," in the New York Times, 5 November 1993.
• Cawley, Janet, "Designer Makes Splash in New York," in the Chicago Tribune, January 1994.
• Infantino, Vivian, "Rowley's Big Adventure," in Footwear News (New York), January 1994.
• Trebay, Guy, "FTV," in Harper's Bazaar, August 1994.
• Glusac, Elaine, "Rowley's Retail Homecoming," in WWD, 7 June 1995.
• Ingrassia, Michele, "Dress for Success," in Newsweek, 13 November 1995.
• Shae, Dan, "A Designer Original: Fashion Designer Cynthia Rowley," in Working Woman, March 1996.
• Pogoda, Dianne M., "Rowley Expands in Asia," in WWD, 9 July 1996.
• Anniss, Elisa, "Design Champion: Keds and Cynthia Rowley…," in Footwear News, 25 August 1997.
• "Cynthia Rowley" in DNR, 3 August 1998.
• Wilson, Eric, "Rowley's Aim for the Good Life" in WWD, 17 May 2001.

— Whitney Blausen; updated by Janette Goff Dixon

Cynthia Rowley, Fall, 2008.

Cynthia Rowley^[1] is an American fashion designer.

Contents 1 Background 2 Television and books 3 Personal life 4 References 5 External links

Background

A native of Barrington, Illinois (an affluent northwestern suburb of Chicago), she is one of three children born to Ed Rowley, a former science teacher, and his wife, Clementine.^[2] She graduated from Barrington High School in Barrington, Illinois (1976)[1] and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1981).^[3]

Known for what The New York Times has called "flirty, vibrantly colored dresses and tops in wispy materials"^[4] that have "a whiff of the carefree, simple spirit" of Claire McCardell,^[5] Rowley launched her business in 1981^[6] or 1983^[7] with $3,000 in seed money from one of her grandmothers.^[8] "Several months later, she held a fashion show in her apartment, inviting every important fashion editor in New York, as well as Andy Warhol and a smattering of movie stars -- none of whom she knew."^[9]

Since then the Cynthia Rowley Collection, incorporated in 1988,^[10] has grown to include women's wear, shoes, handbags, eyewear, belts, dishes, legwear, hats, color cosmetics, and fragrance. It is sold in Cynthia Rowley shops in New York, Chicago, Boston, East Hampton, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and in the Cynthia Rowley online boutique. Shops in Beijing and Shanghai are opening soon.^{[citation needed]} The collection is also represented in better department and specialty stores both domestically and internationally.

The Council of Fashion Designers of America honored Rowley with a Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent (1994)^[11][12] and a nomination for the Perry Ellis Award for New Menswear Design Talent.

The designer and Ilene Rosenzweig, her best friend and a former reporter for The New York Times, also created a line of home accessories called Swell, which made its debut at Target in 2003.^[13]

Television and books

Rowley has appeared as a judge on the reality television programs Project Runway and Design Star and has been a guest on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and the Late Show with David Letterman, among other programs.

She has written and co-written several books:

• Slim: A Fantasy Memoir (Random House, 2007)
• The Swell Dressed Party (with co-author Ilene Rosenzweig, Atria, 2005)
• Swell Holiday (with Rosenzweig, Atria, 2003)
• Home Swell Home (with Rosenzweig, Atria, 2002)

Personal life

Rowley married Tom Sullivan in in 1988; he died in 1994.^[14]

She married William (Bill) Keenan, an interior designer and sculptor, in 1996 (divorced); the officiant was Rudolph W. Giuliani, then the mayor of New York City.^[15] They have a daughter, Kit Clementine (born 1999).[2]^[16]

Rowley married William (Bill) Powers, an editor and writer, on 17 September 2005, at the home of photographer Peter Beard.[3] They have a daughter, Gigi Clementine (born 2005).^[17][4]

References

1. ^ Janette Goff Dixon and Whitney Blausen, "Contemporary Fashion," New York: The Gale Group, 2002.
2. ^ Francine Parnes, "Business People; Mom, Dad, Size 14 Furs: Who Says Fashion Is Elitist?", The New York Times, 8 February 2004
3. ^ Janette Goff Dixon and Whitney Blausen, "Contemporary Fashion," New York: The Gale Group, 2002.
4. ^ Tracie Rozhon, "Fashion Designer Sticks to a Solo Course", The New York Times, 13 February 2003
5. ^ Constance C.R. White, "Celebrating Claire McCardell", The New York Times", 17 November 1998
6. ^ Lois Smith Brady, "Vows: Cynthia Rowley, Bill Keenan", The New York Times, 19 May 1996
7. ^ Janette Goff Dixon and Whitney Blausen, "Contemporary Fashion," New York: The Gale Group, 2002.
8. ^ Robin Finn, "Public Lives: A Patron of the Arts, as Seen in a Sponge", The New York Times, 14 August 2003
9. ^ Lois Smith Brady, "Vows: Cynthia Rowley, Bill Keenan", The New York Times, 19 May 1996
10. ^ Janette Goff Dixon and Whitney Blausen, "Contemporary Fashion," New York: The Gale Group, 2002.
11. ^ Nadine Brozan, "Chronicle", The New York Times, 18 November 1994
12. ^ Michelle Ingrassia, "Fashion: Dress for Success—Cynthia Rowley Moves To The Front Of The Pack", Newsweek, 13 November 1995
13. ^ Robin Finn, "Public Lives: A Patron of the Arts, as Seen in a Sponge", The New York Times, 14 August 2003
14. ^ Janette Goff Dixon and Whitney Blausen, "Contemporary Fashion," New York: The Gale Group, 2002.
15. ^ Lois Smith Brady, "Vows: Cynthia Rowley, Bill Keenan", The New York Times, 19 May 1996
16. ^ Julie I. Iovine, "Living in a Nutshell: Shangri-La in a Shack", The New York Times, 8 June 2000
17. ^ "James Frey Brings His Daughter for a Playdate at Cynthia Rowley's Show". http://www.observer.com/2008/style/james-frey-brings-his-daughter-playdate-cynthia-rowleys-show.  The New York Observer

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cynthia Rowley

• Official website
• British Vogue "Vespa Lady"
• Bio and photo of Cynthia Rowley — Crain's New York Business 40 under 40 — 1997
• HGTV Design Star official website

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