Notable Fashion Designers of the 20th Century

July 11, 2020 Stan

For the upper echelon and privileged classes in our society, style and fashion gurus unequivocally exert an enormous amount of influence. At this juncture the most famous and the most important method designers of the 20th century were:

The designer Gabrielle or Coco Chanel. Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, known as Coco, learned to sew at a young age, while spending time in a Roman Catholic monastery’s orphanage. At the age of 18 in 1901, she set out from school to work with a local tailor, in what can only be called an ironic twist to the rags to riches story of fame and fortune. Throughout this time, she began to design hats, which fascinated the interest of the privileged, together with her enthusiast, French millionaire Ettienne Balsan–her doorway to high Parisian culture. She opened her own boutique in 1910. In the 1920s, she burst onto the fashion scene with her minimalist styles constructed using readily-available fabrics and simple designs. Even though Chanel died in 1971, her fashion is still around today. Chanel has one of the top perfumes in the world today – No.5. Everyone knows Chanel as the person responsible for bringing pants to women’s fashion but did you know Chanel was on TIME magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century and was the only one named to this list from the haute couture field?

The designer Calvin Klein. Calvin Richard Klein was brought up alongside Robert Denning, Ralph Lauren and such, designers raised in the Jewish immigrant community. He is a graduate of FIT in New York. Even though he did not graduate and finish, the New York fashion institute thought of him as one of their own, giving him a special Doctorate in 2003. He was on the cover of Vogue after just one year. He came up with a line of fashion which met the needs for any and every event. He founded his first business in 1968, and since that time has varied his product offerings to include clothing, various types of perfumes, and jewelry.

Ralph Lauren is another top of the line designer famous for his Polo line. Despite his poor beginnings as a traveling salesman for a necktie maker, he later became famous for his Polo Ralph Lauren line of clothing. He started to sell his line of Polo ties in 1967, but his greatest achievement was having his designs used in a film in the 1974 film The Great Gatsby, with Robert Redford in the lead role. Ralph Lauren is listed as the 224th most wealthy person in the world, his worth his estimated at $2.8 billion.

Yves Saint Laurent is well known in the fashion and cosmetic world. One of the greatest and most influential fashion designers is this French designer who was born in Algeria. More well known as Yves Saint Laurent (born as Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent), he is thought of an icon when it comes to ready to wear clothes. His avant garde designs revolutionized the fashion world when he developed the ready-to-wear scene in the 1920s. Another landmark in Yves Saint Laurent’s career was his introduction of power suits for the career-oriented woman, in addition to smoking jackets for men, in 1966. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City honored Saint Laurent by making him the first living designer to receive an award from the museum. On June 1, 2009 Yves passed away as a result of brain cancer.

Artists, fashion designers make their designs very powerful in the world’s culture. The famous designs mean that their names are well-known and will be for many years to come.