Bonnie Cashin

Bonnie Cashin (September 28, ca. 1908– February 3, 2000) was an American designer and is considered one of the pioneering designers of American sportswear. She created practical, uncomplicated clothing that catered to the independent woman of the post-war era.

Cashin was born on September 28, 1915, in Oakland, California to Carl Cashin, a photographer and inventor, and Eunice Cashin. The family lived in several towns in northern California during Cashin's early years, and in each her mother would open a custom dress shop. In a 1973 interview, Cashin explained her interest in fashion: "My mother was a dressmaker and before I could write I could sew."

Cashin graduated from Hollywood High.

Cashin's career began soon after high school when she joined a Los Angeles ballet company as its designer. In 1934, she moved to New York to work for the Roxy Theater, where she created three costume changes a week for each of the theater's 24 dancers. Variety is reported to have described her as, at 19, "the youngest designer to ever hit Broadway."

While in New York, Cashin studied at the Art Students League of New York.

After the U.S. entered World War II, Cashin designed uniforms for women in the armed forces.

In 1943, Cashin returned to Hollywood and costume design. She joined 20th Century Fox and created clothes for about sixty films including Laura (1944), Anna and the King of Siam (1946), and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1946).

Cashin enjoyed the work in Hollywood, explaining: "I wasn't designing for fashion, but for characteristics, which is the way I like to design clothes for daily wear. I like to design clothes for a woman who plays a particular role in life, not simply to design clothes that follow a certain trend, or that express some new silhouette."

In Hollywood, Cashin married Disney illustrator Robert Sterner. The marriage soon ended in divorce.

In 1949, Cashin returned to New York. There she designed her first sportswear collection for Adler & Adler in New York City.

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