Elizabeth Hawes
| Elizabeth Hawes | |
|---|---|
Photograph by Ralph Steiner, 1938
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| Born |
December 16, 1903 Ridgewood, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | September 6, 1971 (aged 67) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, 1921–25 |
| Occupation | Fashion designer |
| Labels | Hawes-Harden (1928–30), Hawes Inc. (1930–40), Elizabeth Hawes Inc., New York (1948–49) |
Elizabeth Hawes (December 16, 1903 – September 6, 1971) was an American clothing designer, outspoken critic of the fashion industry, and champion of ready to wear and people's right to have the clothes they desired, rather than the clothes dictated to be fashionable. She was among the first Americans to establish their reputations outside of Paris haute couture. In addition to her work in the fashion industry as a sketcher, copyist, stylist, and journalist, and designer, she was an author, union organizer, champion of gender equality, and political activist.
Elizabeth Hawes was born in Ridgewood, New Jersey, the second child of four. Her father was an assistant manager for the Southern Pacific Company, and her mother worked on the Board of Education and was actively involved in local politics, especially the rights of the local African-American community. She had graduated from Vassar in 1891 and headed the Federal Emergency Relief Administration for Bergen County, New Jersey, from 1932 to 1936. The family lived an average middle-class existence in a shingle house in a commuter town about twenty-five miles from New York City.
Hawes' mother was an early advocate of Montessori education, and taught her children various handicrafts, such as raffia basket-weaving and beadwork. Hawes also made clothes and hats for her dolls, before beginning to sew her own clothes aged 10. Aged 12 she began dressmaking professionally by making clothes for the young children of her mother's friends. She also sold a few children's dresses to a shop called The Greenaway Shop in Haverford, Pennsylvania. This brief, precocious career ceased when she went to high school and while she continued making her own clothes, she ceased to make them for others. She attended Ridgewood High School.
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