Bill Blass Limited is a fashion house founded by American designer Bill Blass. It is known for its highly priced, beautifully cut womenswear, notable for its inventive combinations of patterns and textures. Among its honors were seven Coty Awards and the Fashion Institute of Technology

Fashion Institute of Technology

The Fashion Institute of Technology, generally known as FIT, is a State University of New York college of art, business, design, and technology connected to the fashion industry, with an urban campus located on West 27th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of...

's Lifetime Achievement Award, awarded to designer Bill Blass in 1999.

History

Designer Bill Blass began his New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 fashion career in 1946. In 1970, after two decades of success in menswear and womenswear, he bought Maurice Rentner Ltd., which he had joined in 1959, and renamed it Bill Blass Limited. Over the next 30 years he expanded his line to include swimwear, furs, luggage, perfume, and chocolate. His fame and income grew, and by 1998 his company had grown to a $700-million-a-year business. In 1999 Blass sold Bill Blass Limited for $50 million and retired to his home in New Preston, Connecticut

New Preston, Connecticut

New Preston is a rural village in the northwestern corner of the town of Washington in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The village is also at the center of New Preston CDP, a census-designated place , whose population was 1,110 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United...

.

Aesthetic

In a time when other designers were designing clothes which were known more for being a work of art, designer Bill Blass set his line apart by designing clothing which any women could wear day or night. According to Ellin Saltzman in the New York Times, "He took American sportswear to its highest level … giving it a clean, modern, impeccable style… He, probably more than any designer knew his customer and understood her."

Bill Blass today

From 2003 to 2007 Bill Blass Limited’s head designer was Michaele Vollbracht, who had known Blass for a number of years. In 1999, Blass had invited him to design a Blass retrospective exhibition at Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

's art museum. Vollbracht resigned as head designer in early 2007, at about the same time as the company was acquired by Nexcen Brands

NexCen Brands

Global Franchise Group is a brand acquisition and management firm headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, United States. It specializes in the retail franchising, consumer branded products, and quick service restaurant franchising industries. It was founded in 2010 with the acquisition of NexCen...

 in February 2007. Nexcen Brands announced on February 15, 2007 that they had completed a $54.6 million cash and stock acquisition of the company.

In July 2007, Nexcen Brands announced that Peter Som would be designing Bill Blass womenswear, and Michael Bastian

Michael Bastian

Michael Bastian is an American fashion designer born in 1965 in Lyons, New York. After graduating from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, he moved to New York City, where his first job was as an Assistant Buyer at Abraham & Strauss...

would design the menswear line.

On December 29, 2008, it was officially announced that the new owners of Bill Blass were Peacock International Holdings LLC.