28 Facts About Anne Fogarty

Anne Fogarty started out as a model in New York in 1939, working for Harvey Berin on Seventh Avenue, before studying fashion design.

Anne Fogarty eventually secured a full-time design job in 1948, and became well known for full-skirted designs with fitted bodices, inspired by Dior's New Look.

Anne Fogarty ran her own label from 1962 to 1974, and worked as a freelance designer until her death.

In 1959, Anne Fogarty published a style manual, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife, which emphasized femininity, neatness, and always being suitably dressed as desirable qualities.

Anne Fogarty was born in 1919 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Robert and Marion Whitney, who had immigrated in 1909 from Cape Town as part of a large Lithuanian Jewish community in South Africa who had apparently changed their names from Robert and Henrietta Gruskin, at the time of their immigration in 1908.

Anne Fogarty's eldest sister, Lillian, would become better known as the food writer Poppy Cannon, and Fogarty and Canon had a sister and a brother born between the dates of their births.

Anne Fogarty wore clothes handed down from her older sisters' cast-off clothing, which she remodeled to suit herself.

Anne Fogarty graduated from high school and entered Allegheny College in 1936.

In 1939, after Poppy moved to New York City, Anne Fogarty decided to follow her there.

Anne Fogarty went to the East Hartman School of Design, although she paid her own way.

Anne Fogarty modeled and worked as a stylist and publicist, including styling Rolls-Royce advertisements, until, in 1948, she secured a design job for Youth Guild, a new company that specialized in teenage fashion.

In 1950, Anne Fogarty was offered a design job at Margot Dresses, a company specializing in junior fashion.

Anne Fogarty worked there for seven years, designing not just dresses, but accessories, lingerie and outerwear.

In 1957, Anne Fogarty moved to Saks Fifth Avenue, where she was one of the main designers.

Anne Fogarty did not follow the latest fashion fads, but focused on staple, stylish designs.

Anne Fogarty was a disciplined designer whose clothes were designed to be versatile and easy to wear.

Anne Fogarty's designs were rarely trimmed as she focused instead on good cut and silhouette, and she favored casual fabrics such as flannel, velveteen, printed cotton, denim and linen, which appealed to a younger audience.

However, the fashion historian Caroline Rennolds Milbank states that the "paper-doll" silhouette describes Anne Fogarty's earliest full-skirted designs.

Anne Fogarty is credited with being one of the first American fashion designers to market the bikini.

In 1960, Anne Fogarty offered casual sportswear including dresses with removable waistcoats to alter their look, and coat-and-dress sets in boldly contrasting colors.

Anne Fogarty offered hotpants ensembles with long skirts and ruffled blouses.

Anne Fogarty won a number of awards for her design work.

Anne Fogarty's clients included Tricia Nixon and the journalist and television personality Dorothy Kilgallen.

Anne Fogarty had two children with her first husband, Tom Anne Fogarty.

Tom Anne Fogarty worked as an art teacher at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.

Anne Fogarty was married a third time in 1977, to Wade O'Hara, but this marriage ended in divorce.

Anne Fogarty is buried, not next to any of her husbands, at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

Anne Fogarty's principles continue to be cited by designers and historians such as Valerie Steele who has explained how they informed the costuming of Mad Men.