James Galanos
Encyclopedia
James Galanos is an American fashion designer, widely considered to be one the world's foremost 20th century couturier
s.
in Bridgeton, New Jersey
in 1942 and went to New York City intending to enroll at a school headed by Barbara Karinska
, the great Russian stage designer and costumer. When the school failed to open in the autumn, he enrolled at the Traphagen School of Fashion, one of the first schools of its kind. He attended two semesters at Traphagen, the first spent in general design studies and the second in draping and construction. After eight months, in 1943, Galanos left the school because he felt that what he wanted to learn could only be acquired from practical experience in the garment industry.
, the incubator of such talents as Jean Louis
, Pauline Trigere
, and Norman Norell
. His job there turned out to be more clerical than creative, and, disappointed, Galanos left Carnegie and began selling his sketches to individual manufacturers on Seventh Avenue for less than $10.00 per sketch. Then, in 1945, his former Traphagen style and fashion teacher Elisabeth Rorabach called his attention to a help-wanted ad she had seen in The New York Times
, placed by textile magnate Lawrence Lesavoy. "His beautiful wife, Joan, was hoping to launch a ready-to-wear dress business in California, and they were looking for a designer," recalled Galanos. The Lesavoys employed him for $75.00 a week and dispatched him to Los Angeles. Their plan, however, did not materialize; the Lesavoys divorced, and Galanos lost his job. "Out of pity," Galanos said, Jean Louis, head costume designer at Columbia Pictures
, hired him as a part-time assistant sketch artist. Soon afterwards, Lawrence Lesavoy agreed to send the 24-year-old Galanos to Paris, just as couture houses there were rebounding from the war. Couturier Robert Piguet absorbed the American into his stable of assistants, among whom were Pierre Balmain
, Hubert de Givenchy
, and Marc Bohan
. At the Piguet atelier, Galanos met with fabric and trimming suppliers to choose materials, sketched and draped up designs under the eye of Piguet, who oversaw his work on a daily basis. In 1948, Galanos decided to return to the U.S and accepted a job with Davidow, a dress-making firm in New York. The new job allowed him very little creativity, and he resigned shortly.
In 1951, James Galanos decided to take another shot at California, and when the opportunity arose for him to open his own company, Galanos Originals, in 1952, he created a small collection, which was immediately ordered by Saks Fifth Avenue
in Beverly Hills. He then opened his New York showroom where a Neiman Marcus
clothing buyer discovered him and predicted his styles would soon “set the world on fire.” Stanley Marcus
, the president of Neiman Marcus, agreed and soon proclaimed that the greatest and most treasured luxury in the world for a woman to have would be a dress by James Galanos. Legendary magazine editors and style arbiters such as Diana Vreeland
, Eleanor Lambert
and Eugenia Sheppard
became fans, ensuring that he would become a household name within months. From this first collection, his clothing has been admired for its particularly high quality, especially considering it was ready-to-wear
, not custom-made. His chiffon
dresses in particular made his reputation in the early 1950s, with their yards of meticulously hand-rolled edges. Many designers worked with chiffon, but Galanos was a true master of the genre. He draped chiffon, pleated it, layered it, used flower prints and fabrics with metallic glints. As tailored as a shirtwaist dress or as seductive as a sarong, he gave chiffon a high style all his own. Sometimes he even gilded it, as in his notable pin-striped dress with a three-dimensional jeweled butterfly embroidered on the chest.
In 1953, Galanos embarked on another venture altogether – he began designing for movies. His first job was to create costumes for Rosalind Russell
, the star of the forthcoming film "Never Wave at a WAC." Russell, who at that time was considered the best-dressed of all American actresses, loved Galanos' designs, and she became his friend and a loyal client. Galanos went on to design costumes for other Russell's movies, most notably the film version of Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad
in 1967. After her death, Miss Russell's wardrobe – nearly all of it Galanos – was divided among a number of costume collections across the country as gifts in her memory from her husband, Frederick Brisson. Other Galanos' contributions to film and performing arts included costume designs for Judy Garland
for "General Electric Theater" and "Judy Garland Musical Special," both in 1956, as well as the 1974 film Ginger in the Morning
, starring Sissy Spacek
.
. His business was more comparable to a couture house than a ready-to-wear manufacturer; there was a great amount of hand work in each garment, and all of his famous beadwork and embroidery was done by his staff. Galanos always chose fabrics and trimmings personally during trips to Europe and Asia. Though he constantly looked for the best fabrics, Galanos often felt compelled to create his own. So he would make jackets out of different colored ribbons to toss over his chiffon dresses in impressionist colors. Or he would cross black satin ribbons over black lace for the bodices of delicately frothy short evening dresses. He often lined his dresses with silks that other designers used for dresses themselves, and he was always a firm believer in the importance of hidden details. These details made a difference in the feel of the clothes on the body and the hang of the fabric, and his clients all over the world were willing to pay a great deal for them. Details that were not hidden included sequins, feathers, metallic brocades and laces. He often balanced his most glittering dresses with quiet tie-dyed velvet sheaths and long, clingy styles in black crepe or crushed velvet. "Galanos: Perfection, and Lots of It," read the headline
in The New York Times
after Galanos' show of some 200 designs in 1988. "While he travels to Europe for his fabrics - many are the same as those used in the Paris couture collections - most of Galanos's designing is done in California," reported the Times. "His standards are as high as those found anywhere in the world. If a comparison is made, it is usually with the Paris couture. It is reasonably astonishing that an American designer of ready-to-wear should merit that kind of homage over so long a period of time." Fashion designer Gustave Tassell
, a long-time friend of Galanos, recalls an occasion when Hubert de Givenchy
, the illustrious French couturier, was looking at an inside of a Galanos garment and exclaimed "... we don't make them this well in Paris!" It was precisely this couture quality and the timelessness of Galanos' designs that caused his clients to never part with their gowns and continue wearing them over many years. But it was also the price tag. "Nobody could afford to dress completely with Jimmy," Nancy Reagan
once confessed. "I hang on to what I have."
Galanos was also famous for his exquisite furs. He used mainly mink, sable, lynx and broadtail and handled the furs imaginatively, as if they were fabric. He smocked and quilted the surfaces, nipped the waistlines and used drawstrings, ruffles and capelets to give a strong fashion slant to all that opulence. He often designed for Peter Dion, the furrier who made sure that the quality of the pelts and the workmanship supported the innovative design. At the top of the line were coats made of lynx bellies, so soft and fluffy they looked airborne. The short style was selling for $200,000, the long one – for $300,000. The fitted coat was a Galanos specialty, successful in almost any fur, including fox. As he did with his ready-to-wear, Galanos also made the hats and other accessories, which included short fur scarves with mink tails hanging from the ends. He showed his coats over stretch tights and bodysuits with satin surfaces. There were unexpected styles as well, like fur shorts, gathered down the sides. Many sleeves featured the smock quilting that became a Galanos signature. He also had a special feeling for broadtail, the tissue-thin fur with a sleek, elegant surface. But Galanos could also make soft mink coats look lean, willowy and graceful by the way he shaped the skins in the back or carved the hemline in a back-dipping curve. According to Bernardine Morris of the New York Times, Galanos' "best design is a slender coat with the skins worked vertically through the bodice and horizontally for the skirt, an example of elegant proportioning."
Many of the world's most socially prominent women were Galanos customers. "James Galanos designs for wealthy women who go to luncheons and cocktail parties, dine at the finest restaurants and are invited to the best parties," reported The New York Times. "His clothes are rarely seen in business offices. It isn't only because of the five-figure price tags, although they are daunting to all but the highest-paid executives. It's also the glamour quotient of the clothes." Galanos agreed, "I design for a very limited group of people," he told Time
magazine in 1985. In the 1980s, he made national headlines as First Lady Nancy Reagan
's favorite designer. The fact that Mrs. Reagan wore a 14-year-old Galanos gown to her first state dinner at the White House
attested to the timelessness and durability not only of his workmanship, but more importantly, of his design. This type of occurrence was commonplace among his faithful customers, which included Marilyn Monroe
, Elizabeth Taylor
, Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson
, Grace Kelly
, Diana Ross
, Betsy Bloomingdale, Rosalind Russell
, Marlene Dietrich
, Dorothy Lamour
, Judy Garland
, Loretta Young
, Ali McGraw, Ivana Trump
, Carolyne Roehm, Kim Basinger
, Arianna Huffington
and many other notable personalities and film and media stars. In 1982, John Duka, the New York Times columnist, described in his column, Notes on Fashion, a black tie
party in Galanos' honor attended by his A-list fans, "James Galanos, the designer whose clothing is unmatched in quality and price in this country, was in town, and almost immediately the level of social exchange seemed elevated as if by ripple effect. Betsy and Michael Kaiser – he is the photographer – gave a black tie buffet dinner for the designer Saturday. Among those at table were Lyn Revson, Gordon Parks
, Barbara Walters
, Arianna Stassinopoulos, former Senator Abraham A. Ribicoff
and his wife, Casey, Freddie and Arlette Brisson, Mary McFadden
, Tammy Grimes
, Stephen Paley
, John Loring
, Gloria Vanderbilt
, William Macomber, Sybilla Clark, Alex Gregory, Frank and Gloria Schiff and Bob Colacello
. Mr. Galanos was the center of attention: Almost every woman in the room was wearing one of his designs."
over lunch at the Pierre Hotel in New York he asked the reporter, Eric Wilson, shaking his head in contempt, "How many women can wear just a patch over their crotch and a bra? Aren't you embarrassed when you see a young girl walking down the street practically naked? Fashion is geared only to young people today," Galanos continued. "All we see is Levi's and bare bellies to the point of nausea. There are no clothes for elegant women. Let's face it, some of the things you see in the paper are absolutely monstrous looking – and I'm not squeamish. God knows I made sexy clothes in my day, but there's a point when you have to say, 'Enough, already'." Of contemporary designers, he admires Ralph Rucci, who shares Galanos' views of the state of fashion at the beginning of the new millennium. "I think we're in a state of mediocrity," Rucci told design students at the San Francisco Academy of Art University
. Since early 2000s, Galanos has been attending most of Rucci's shows in New York and Paris. "I thought what he was doing was really terrific," Galanos told Cathy Horyn
of The New York Times in 2002, "he has the same kind of concept that I had – beautiful details that you don't see in ready-to-wear." "Ralph Rucci makes clothes like no one else, taking pains to make things that are beautifully finished," he told Harper's Bazaar
in 2004. On his side, Rucci considers Galanos a major influence in his work and a continuing inspiration. "If we were in Japan, we'd have an expression and call [Galanos] our national living treasure," Rucci told a group of distinguished guests that included Nancy Reagan, Betsy Bloomingdale and Peggy Moffitt
, at an event honoring Galanos at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.
"While he officially retired in 1998," wrote Alix Browne in The New York Times, "he shows no signs of falling out of fashion." Galanos's vintage
gowns remain chic, sought after and popular among the international jet-set, Hollywood stars and supermodel
s, and have been seen on such notable women as Celine Dion
, Rene Zelwegger, Nicole Kidman
, Jessica Alba
, Heidi Klum
, Tatiana Sorokko
, Amber Valletta
, Christina Ricci
, Ashley Olsen
and Katie Holmes
, among many others.
in San Francisco. The show featured more than 40 photographs taken by Galanos over the previous several years. The works were mostly abstract, with the notable exception of a few mystical, mirror-effect enigmatic landscapes. Much like fashion design, his photography revolved around material, shape and color. The subjects were crafted by Galanos out of paper or fabric and then photographed in evocative light, creating subtle variations of tone and shading.
Hall of Fame in 1982. He won a host of awards during his career, including the Coty Fashion Award in both 1954 and 1956. He was inducted into the Coty Hall of Fame in 1959. Other awards include the Crystal Ball Award from The Fashion Group of Philadelphia, 1963; the Fashion Award from the Drexel Institute of Technology, 1965; the London Sunday Times International Award, 1968; the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
Golden 44 Award, 1980; a Diploma di Merita from the Universita delle Arte Terme, Italy, 1981. Galanos also received the prestigious Council of Fashion Designers of America Lifetime Achievement Award
in 1985. In the year 2000, the City of New York began honoring American fashion designers by placing bronze plaques along the pavement of Seventh Avenue. Dubbed the "Fashion Walk of Fame", Galanos was one of the first designers to be so honored. In 2007, he became the recipient of the Rodeo Drive
Walk of Style Award, and one year later, in 2008, he received a Doctor of Philosophy
degree honoris causa from the San Francisco Academy of Art University
.
James Galanos was subject of numerous museum solo exhibitions, and his designs are in the permanent collections of important museums worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York, Victoria and Albert Museum
in London, U.K, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
, in Los Angeles, Musée Galliera
in Paris, France, the Phoenix Art Museum
in Phoenix, Arizona, the Philadelphia Museum of Art
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Smithsonian Museum
in Washington DC, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology
in New York, N.Y., the Brooklyn Museum
in Brooklyn, N.Y. and the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum
in San Francisco, California, to name a few.
Galanos' career spanned more than half a century. "To James Galanos, fashion is all about making women look beautiful," wrote Anne-Marie Schiro in The New York Times, "and he has devoted 44 years of his life to designing clothes to that end." He "was always a hero to all those who worshiped at the feet of fashion, not just those who wore the clothes", wrote Bernardine Morris in an introduction to the catalogue of Galanos' retrospective exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum in 1996. "He was heralded as the equal of any of the mythic group of French designers who represented the apotheosis of fashion. The difference, then and now, is that Galanos' clothes were ready-to-wear; the French Haute Couture made custom clothes. In this, he is truly an American designer. For, in this country, it is ready-to-wear that dominates fashion, a lesson the French learned after he pointed the way. This may be James Galanos' major contribution to the fashion world: he brought brilliance and quality to styles meant to be bought off the rack"
, of Washington Crossing
, Pennsylvania. He lives in West Hollywood and Palm Springs, California.
Couturier
A couturier is an establishment or person involved in the clothing fashion industry who makes original garments to order for private clients. A couturier may make what is known as haute couture. Such a person usually hires patternmakers and machinists for garment production, and is either employed...
s.
Early life
James Galanos was born September 20, 1924 in a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the only son of Greek-born parents. His mother, Helen Gorgoliatos, and his father, Gregory Galanos, a frustrated artist, ran a restaurant in southern New Jersey, where Galanos had his first glimpses of well-dressed women. He grew up a shy boy and learned to work hard from early age. Galanos remembers that he was "a loner, surrounded by three sisters. I never sewed; I just sketched. It was simply instinctive. As a young boy I had no fashion influences around me but all the while I was dreaming of Paris and New York." Galanos graduated from Bridgeton High SchoolBridgeton High School
Bridgeton High School is a comprehensive community public high school that serves students in grades 9-12 from the city of Bridgeton, in Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Bridgeton Public Schools, an Abbott District...
in Bridgeton, New Jersey
Bridgeton, New Jersey
Bridgeton is a city in Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States, in the south part of the state, on the Cohansey River, near Delaware Bay. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 25,349. It is the county seat of Cumberland County...
in 1942 and went to New York City intending to enroll at a school headed by Barbara Karinska
Barbara Karinska
Varvara Jmoudsky, better known as Barbara Karinska or simply Karinska , was costumer of the New York City Ballet, and the first costume designer ever to win the Capezio Dance Award, for costumes "of visual beauty for the spectator and complete delight for the dancer".However, she designed the...
, the great Russian stage designer and costumer. When the school failed to open in the autumn, he enrolled at the Traphagen School of Fashion, one of the first schools of its kind. He attended two semesters at Traphagen, the first spent in general design studies and the second in draping and construction. After eight months, in 1943, Galanos left the school because he felt that what he wanted to learn could only be acquired from practical experience in the garment industry.
Career
Dedication to excellence in craftsmanship and design was the foundation of James Galanos' career. The quality of workmanship found in his clothing is unsurpassed in America today. It may seem a contradiction that his sophisticated, mature, and elegant clothing was designed and produced in Southern California, traditionally the land of sportswear. But Galanos was satisfied to remain where he began his business in 1951, a continent away from New York and the center of the American fashion industry.1944 – mid-1950s
In 1944, Galanos got a position as a general assistant at the chic New York East 49th Street emporium of Hattie CarnegieHattie Carnegie
Hattie Carnegie was a fashion entrepreneur based in New York City from the 1920s to the 1960s. She was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary as Henrietta Kanengeiser....
, the incubator of such talents as Jean Louis
Jean Louis
Jean Louis was a French-born, Hollywood costume designer and an Academy Award winner for Costume Design. Louis worked as head designer for Columbia Pictures from 1944 to 1960...
, Pauline Trigere
Pauline Trigère
Pauline Trigère was a French-born American fashion designer, known for her crisp, tailored cuts and innovative ideas.The daughter of a tailor, Trigère was able to operate a sewing machine by age 10 and often assisted her dressmaker mother. Shortly after leaving school, Pauline was employed as a...
, and Norman Norell
Norman Norell
Norman Norell was an American fashion designer, known for his elegant suits and tailored silhouettes....
. His job there turned out to be more clerical than creative, and, disappointed, Galanos left Carnegie and began selling his sketches to individual manufacturers on Seventh Avenue for less than $10.00 per sketch. Then, in 1945, his former Traphagen style and fashion teacher Elisabeth Rorabach called his attention to a help-wanted ad she had seen in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, placed by textile magnate Lawrence Lesavoy. "His beautiful wife, Joan, was hoping to launch a ready-to-wear dress business in California, and they were looking for a designer," recalled Galanos. The Lesavoys employed him for $75.00 a week and dispatched him to Los Angeles. Their plan, however, did not materialize; the Lesavoys divorced, and Galanos lost his job. "Out of pity," Galanos said, Jean Louis, head costume designer at Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, hired him as a part-time assistant sketch artist. Soon afterwards, Lawrence Lesavoy agreed to send the 24-year-old Galanos to Paris, just as couture houses there were rebounding from the war. Couturier Robert Piguet absorbed the American into his stable of assistants, among whom were Pierre Balmain
Pierre Balmain
Pierre Alexandre Claudius Balmain was a French fashion designer. Known for sophistication and elegance, he once said that "dressmaking is the architecture of movement."...
, Hubert de Givenchy
Hubert de Givenchy
Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy is a French aristocrat and fashion designer who founded The House of Givenchy in 1952. He is famous for having designed much of the personal and professional wardrobe of Audrey Hepburn, as well as clothing for clients such as Jacqueline Kennedy...
, and Marc Bohan
Marc Bohan
Marc Bohan is a French fashion designer.In 1945, he worked as a design assistant for Robert Piguet. In 1949, he left the Piguet couture house and worked as a design assistant for Edward Molyneux. From 1954 until 1958, Bohan worked as a designer for Jean Patou.In 1958, he joined the Christian...
. At the Piguet atelier, Galanos met with fabric and trimming suppliers to choose materials, sketched and draped up designs under the eye of Piguet, who oversaw his work on a daily basis. In 1948, Galanos decided to return to the U.S and accepted a job with Davidow, a dress-making firm in New York. The new job allowed him very little creativity, and he resigned shortly.
In 1951, James Galanos decided to take another shot at California, and when the opportunity arose for him to open his own company, Galanos Originals, in 1952, he created a small collection, which was immediately ordered by Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue is a luxury American specialty store owned and operated by Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises , a subsidiary of Saks Incorporated. It competes in the high-end specialty store market in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, i.e. 'the 3 B's' Bergdorf, Barneys, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor...
in Beverly Hills. He then opened his New York showroom where a Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus, formerly Neiman-Marcus, is a luxury specialty retail department store operated by the Neiman Marcus Group in the United States. The company is headquartered in the One Marcus Square building in Downtown Dallas, Texas, and competes with other department stores such as Saks Fifth...
clothing buyer discovered him and predicted his styles would soon “set the world on fire.” Stanley Marcus
Stanley Marcus
Harold Stanley Marcus was an early president and later chairman of the board of the luxury retailer Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Texas, which his father and aunt had founded in 1907...
, the president of Neiman Marcus, agreed and soon proclaimed that the greatest and most treasured luxury in the world for a woman to have would be a dress by James Galanos. Legendary magazine editors and style arbiters such as Diana Vreeland
Diana Vreeland
Diana Vreeland was a noted columnist and editor in the field of fashion. She worked for the fashion magazines Harper's Bazaar and Vogue and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Born as Diana Dalziel, Vreeland was the eldest daughter of American socialite mother Emily Key Hoffman...
, Eleanor Lambert
Eleanor Lambert
Eleanor Lambert Berkson -Background:Born in Crawfordsville Indiana. She attended the John Herron School of Art and the Chicago Art Institute to study Fashion. She started at an advertising agency in Manhattan New York, dealing mostly with artists and art galleries...
and Eugenia Sheppard
Eugenia Sheppard
Eugenia Sheppard was an American fashion writer and newspaper columnist for some 80 newspapers Eugenia Sheppard (July 24, 1900 - November 11, 1984) was an American fashion writer and newspaper columnist for some 80 newspapers Eugenia Sheppard (July 24, 1900 - November 11, 1984) was an American...
became fans, ensuring that he would become a household name within months. From this first collection, his clothing has been admired for its particularly high quality, especially considering it was ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear or prêt-à-porter is the term for factory-made clothing, sold in finished condition, in standardized sizes, as distinct from made to measure or bespoke clothing tailored to a particular person's frame. Off-the-peg is sometimes used for items which are not clothing.Ready-to-wear has...
, not custom-made. His chiffon
Chiffon (fabric)
Chiffon, , from the French word for a cloth or rag, is a lightweight, balanced plain-woven sheer fabric woven of alternate S- and Z-twist crepe yarns. The twist in the crepe yarns puckers the fabric slightly in both directions after weaving, giving it some stretch and a slightly rough...
dresses in particular made his reputation in the early 1950s, with their yards of meticulously hand-rolled edges. Many designers worked with chiffon, but Galanos was a true master of the genre. He draped chiffon, pleated it, layered it, used flower prints and fabrics with metallic glints. As tailored as a shirtwaist dress or as seductive as a sarong, he gave chiffon a high style all his own. Sometimes he even gilded it, as in his notable pin-striped dress with a three-dimensional jeweled butterfly embroidered on the chest.
In 1953, Galanos embarked on another venture altogether – he began designing for movies. His first job was to create costumes for Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
, the star of the forthcoming film "Never Wave at a WAC." Russell, who at that time was considered the best-dressed of all American actresses, loved Galanos' designs, and she became his friend and a loyal client. Galanos went on to design costumes for other Russell's movies, most notably the film version of Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad
Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad
Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad: A Pseudoclassical Tragifarce in a Bastard French Tradition was the first play written by Arthur L. Kopit. The play opened off-Broadway at the Phoenix Repertory Theatre in New York City in 1962 and moved to the Morosco Theatre...
in 1967. After her death, Miss Russell's wardrobe – nearly all of it Galanos – was divided among a number of costume collections across the country as gifts in her memory from her husband, Frederick Brisson. Other Galanos' contributions to film and performing arts included costume designs for Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
for "General Electric Theater" and "Judy Garland Musical Special," both in 1956, as well as the 1974 film Ginger in the Morning
Ginger in the Morning
Ginger in the Morning is a 1974 comedy film starring Sissy Spacek as a hitchhiker. It was also the first American film appearance of a young Fred Ward.- Cast :-External links:* – at the Troma Entertainment movie database...
, starring Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
.
Mid-1950s – 1998
Galanos gathered some of the most talented craftsmen available in his workrooms; many were trained in Europe or in the costume studios of Hollywood, for whom he continued to design from time to time. Nondas Keramitsis, Galanos' head tailor, moved to Los Angeles from his native Greece to make women’s clothing. He had heard about Galanos through relatives and soon started working with him in his Los Angeles studio. Keramitsis and a crew of about 22 tailors he oversaw made everything by hand. If Galanos' work was compared to that of anyone else, it was compared to French haute coutureHaute couture
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...
. His business was more comparable to a couture house than a ready-to-wear manufacturer; there was a great amount of hand work in each garment, and all of his famous beadwork and embroidery was done by his staff. Galanos always chose fabrics and trimmings personally during trips to Europe and Asia. Though he constantly looked for the best fabrics, Galanos often felt compelled to create his own. So he would make jackets out of different colored ribbons to toss over his chiffon dresses in impressionist colors. Or he would cross black satin ribbons over black lace for the bodices of delicately frothy short evening dresses. He often lined his dresses with silks that other designers used for dresses themselves, and he was always a firm believer in the importance of hidden details. These details made a difference in the feel of the clothes on the body and the hang of the fabric, and his clients all over the world were willing to pay a great deal for them. Details that were not hidden included sequins, feathers, metallic brocades and laces. He often balanced his most glittering dresses with quiet tie-dyed velvet sheaths and long, clingy styles in black crepe or crushed velvet. "Galanos: Perfection, and Lots of It," read the headline
Headline
The headline is the text at the top of a newspaper article, indicating the nature of the article below it.It is sometimes termed a news hed, a deliberate misspelling that dates from production flow during hot type days, to notify the composing room that a written note from an editor concerned a...
in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
after Galanos' show of some 200 designs in 1988. "While he travels to Europe for his fabrics - many are the same as those used in the Paris couture collections - most of Galanos's designing is done in California," reported the Times. "His standards are as high as those found anywhere in the world. If a comparison is made, it is usually with the Paris couture. It is reasonably astonishing that an American designer of ready-to-wear should merit that kind of homage over so long a period of time." Fashion designer Gustave Tassell
Gustave Tassell
Gustave Tassell was an American fashion designer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Tassell studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Moving to New York City, he worked in the advertising and display department for Hattie Carnegie, who was well known in the fashion design world...
, a long-time friend of Galanos, recalls an occasion when Hubert de Givenchy
Hubert de Givenchy
Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy is a French aristocrat and fashion designer who founded The House of Givenchy in 1952. He is famous for having designed much of the personal and professional wardrobe of Audrey Hepburn, as well as clothing for clients such as Jacqueline Kennedy...
, the illustrious French couturier, was looking at an inside of a Galanos garment and exclaimed "... we don't make them this well in Paris!" It was precisely this couture quality and the timelessness of Galanos' designs that caused his clients to never part with their gowns and continue wearing them over many years. But it was also the price tag. "Nobody could afford to dress completely with Jimmy," Nancy Reagan
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....
once confessed. "I hang on to what I have."
Many of the world's most socially prominent women were Galanos customers. "James Galanos designs for wealthy women who go to luncheons and cocktail parties, dine at the finest restaurants and are invited to the best parties," reported The New York Times. "His clothes are rarely seen in business offices. It isn't only because of the five-figure price tags, although they are daunting to all but the highest-paid executives. It's also the glamour quotient of the clothes." Galanos agreed, "I design for a very limited group of people," he told Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine in 1985. In the 1980s, he made national headlines as First Lady Nancy Reagan
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....
's favorite designer. The fact that Mrs. Reagan wore a 14-year-old Galanos gown to her first state dinner at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
attested to the timelessness and durability not only of his workmanship, but more importantly, of his design. This type of occurrence was commonplace among his faithful customers, which included Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
, Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
, Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson
Lady Bird Johnson
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that...
, Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
, Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
, Betsy Bloomingdale, Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
, Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
, Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour was an American film actress. She is best remembered for appearing in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope .-Early life:Lamour was born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Carmen Louise Dorothy...
, Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
, Loretta Young
Loretta Young
Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953...
, Ali McGraw, Ivana Trump
Ivana Trump
Ivana Trump is a former Olympic athlete, socialite, and fashion model noted for her marriage to mogul Donald Trump.-Early years:...
, Carolyne Roehm, Kim Basinger
Kim Basinger
Kimila Ann "Kim" Basinger is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for her portrayals of Domino Petachi, the Bond girl in Never Say Never Again , and Vicki Vale, the female lead in Batman . Basinger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture...
, Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington is a Greek American author and syndicated columnist. She is best known as co-founder of the news website The Huffington Post. A popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, she adopted more liberal political beliefs in the late 1990s...
and many other notable personalities and film and media stars. In 1982, John Duka, the New York Times columnist, described in his column, Notes on Fashion, a black tie
Black tie
Black tie is a dress code for evening events and social functions. For a man, the main component is a usually black jacket, known as a dinner jacket or tuxedo...
party in Galanos' honor attended by his A-list fans, "James Galanos, the designer whose clothing is unmatched in quality and price in this country, was in town, and almost immediately the level of social exchange seemed elevated as if by ripple effect. Betsy and Michael Kaiser – he is the photographer – gave a black tie buffet dinner for the designer Saturday. Among those at table were Lyn Revson, Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was a groundbreaking American photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist and film director...
, Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters
Barbara Jill Walters is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. She has hosted morning television shows , the television newsmagazine , former co-anchor of the ABC Evening News, and current contributor to ABC News.Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news...
, Arianna Stassinopoulos, former Senator Abraham A. Ribicoff
Abraham A. Ribicoff
Abraham Alexander Ribicoff was an American Democratic Party politician. He served in the United States Congress, as the 80th Governor of Connecticut and as President John F. Kennedy's Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare...
and his wife, Casey, Freddie and Arlette Brisson, Mary McFadden
Mary McFadden
Mary Josephine McFadden is an American fashion designer and writer.-Family:McFadden is the only daughter of Alexander Bloomfield McFadden, a cotton broker, and her mother was the former Mary Josephine Cutting, a socialite and concert pianist. Her father died in 1948, when he was killed in an...
, Tammy Grimes
Tammy Grimes
-Early life:Grimes was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, the daughter of Eola Willard , a naturalist and spiritualist, and Nicholas Luther Grimes, an innkeeper, country-club manager, and farmer. She attended high school at the then-all girls school, Beaver Country Day School, in Chestnut Hill,...
, Stephen Paley
Stephen Paley
Stephen Drew Paley is an American photographer, radio producer, television producer, music supervisor and actor....
, John Loring
John Loring
John Loring, born 1939, is design director emeritus of Tiffany & Co., where he was design director from 1979 to 2009. He is the author of numerous books about Tiffany's and art in general and a longtime contributor to Architectural Digest....
, Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Laura Vanderbilt is an American artist, author, actress, heiress, and socialite most noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans...
, William Macomber, Sybilla Clark, Alex Gregory, Frank and Gloria Schiff and Bob Colacello
Bob Colacello
Bob Colacello is an American writer. Raised in Bensonhurst, New York, Colacello graduated from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1969, and also has an MFA degree in film criticism from Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts.- Early endeavors and...
. Mr. Galanos was the center of attention: Almost every woman in the room was wearing one of his designs."
1998 – present
Despite his retirement in 1998, Galanos continues to make his presence known in the fashion world. In 2002, he blasted the fashion industry for catering to only young women with perfect bodies. In an interview with WWDWomen's Wear Daily
Women's Wear Daily is a fashion-industry trade journal sometimes called "the bible of fashion." WWD delivers information and intelligence on changing trends and breaking news in the fashion, beauty and retail industries with a readership composed largely of retailers, designers, manufacturers,...
over lunch at the Pierre Hotel in New York he asked the reporter, Eric Wilson, shaking his head in contempt, "How many women can wear just a patch over their crotch and a bra? Aren't you embarrassed when you see a young girl walking down the street practically naked? Fashion is geared only to young people today," Galanos continued. "All we see is Levi's and bare bellies to the point of nausea. There are no clothes for elegant women. Let's face it, some of the things you see in the paper are absolutely monstrous looking – and I'm not squeamish. God knows I made sexy clothes in my day, but there's a point when you have to say, 'Enough, already'." Of contemporary designers, he admires Ralph Rucci, who shares Galanos' views of the state of fashion at the beginning of the new millennium. "I think we're in a state of mediocrity," Rucci told design students at the San Francisco Academy of Art University
Academy of Art University
The Academy of Art University , a for-profit university owned by the Stephens Institute, was founded in San Francisco, California in 1929 by Richard S. Stephens...
. Since early 2000s, Galanos has been attending most of Rucci's shows in New York and Paris. "I thought what he was doing was really terrific," Galanos told Cathy Horyn
Cathy Horyn
Cathy Horyn is an American fashion journalist, working as the fashion critic for The New York Times where she also keeps a highly noted and provocative blog called...
of The New York Times in 2002, "he has the same kind of concept that I had – beautiful details that you don't see in ready-to-wear." "Ralph Rucci makes clothes like no one else, taking pains to make things that are beautifully finished," he told Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
in 2004. On his side, Rucci considers Galanos a major influence in his work and a continuing inspiration. "If we were in Japan, we'd have an expression and call [Galanos] our national living treasure," Rucci told a group of distinguished guests that included Nancy Reagan, Betsy Bloomingdale and Peggy Moffitt
Peggy Moffitt
Peggy Moffitt , is best known as the premier model and muse for the late fashion designer Rudi Gernreich. Though her unique look has now become iconic of the 60s fashion scene, Peggy started out pursuing a career in film, debuting in the 1955's You're Never Too Young.-Biography:Her first credited...
, at an event honoring Galanos at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.
"While he officially retired in 1998," wrote Alix Browne in The New York Times, "he shows no signs of falling out of fashion." Galanos's vintage
Vintage clothing
Vintage clothing is a generic term for new or second hand garments originating from a previous era. The phrase is also used in connection with a retail outlet, e.g...
gowns remain chic, sought after and popular among the international jet-set, Hollywood stars and supermodel
Supermodel
The term supermodel refers to a highly-paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture and commercial modeling. The term became prominent in the popular culture of the 1980s. Supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and labels...
s, and have been seen on such notable women as Celine Dion
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...
, Rene Zelwegger, Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
, Jessica Alba
Jessica Alba
Jessica Marie Alba is an American television and film actress. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack . Alba rose to prominence as the lead actress in the television series Dark Angel...
, Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum
Heidi Samuel , better known by her birth name Heidi Klum, is a German model, actress, television host, businesswoman, fashion designer, television producer, and occasional singer. In 2008 she became an American citizen while maintaining her native German citizenship...
, Tatiana Sorokko
Tatiana Sorokko
Tatiana Sorokko is a Russian-born American model, fashion journalist and haute couture collector. She walked the runways for the world's most prominent designers and fashion houses, appeared on covers of leading fashion magazines, and became the first Russian model of the post-Soviet period to gain...
, Amber Valletta
Amber Valletta
Amber Evangeline Valletta is an American actress and model. She began her career as a model for fashion agencies, and appeared on cover pages of internationally recognized magazines. She made her film debut in Drop Back Ten . She then starred in the hit film Hitch...
, Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...
, Ashley Olsen
Ashley Olsen
Ashley Fuller Olsen is an American actress, fashion designer, producer, and author. She co-founded luxury fashion brand The Row and the more affordable line Olsenboye with her twin sister Mary-Kate Olsen and started her own fashion company called Elizabeth and James...
and Katie Holmes
Katie Holmes
Katherine Noelle "Katie" Holmes is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her movie roles have included the blockbuster Batman Begins along with art house films such as The Ice Storm and thrillers...
, among many others.
Photography
Having reinvented himself as an abstract photographer, in 2006, at age 82, Galanos's first exhibition of photography was held to great acclaim at the Serge Sorokko GallerySerge Sorokko
Serge Sorokko is an American art dealer, publisher and owner of the Serge Sorokko Gallery in San Francisco. He played a major role in establishing the first cultural exchanges in the field of visual arts between the United States and the Soviet Union during the period of perestroika...
in San Francisco. The show featured more than 40 photographs taken by Galanos over the previous several years. The works were mostly abstract, with the notable exception of a few mystical, mirror-effect enigmatic landscapes. Much like fashion design, his photography revolved around material, shape and color. The subjects were crafted by Galanos out of paper or fabric and then photographed in evocative light, creating subtle variations of tone and shading.
Awards and recognition
An epitome of style and impeccable taste in both his attire and manners, James Galanos was named to the International Best Dressed ListInternational Best Dressed List
The International Best Dressed List was founded by fashionista Eleanor Lambert in 1940 as an attempt to boost the reputation of American fashion at the time.People who have been on the list include from A to Z:-The International Hall of Fame: Women:...
Hall of Fame in 1982. He won a host of awards during his career, including the Coty Fashion Award in both 1954 and 1956. He was inducted into the Coty Hall of Fame in 1959. Other awards include the Crystal Ball Award from The Fashion Group of Philadelphia, 1963; the Fashion Award from the Drexel Institute of Technology, 1965; the London Sunday Times International Award, 1968; the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is southern California's largest not-for-profit business federation, representing the interests of more than 235,000 businesses in L.A...
Golden 44 Award, 1980; a Diploma di Merita from the Universita delle Arte Terme, Italy, 1981. Galanos also received the prestigious Council of Fashion Designers of America Lifetime Achievement Award
Council of Fashion Designers of America
The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. is a not-for-profit trade association of over 350 of America’s foremost fashion and accessory designers. As of 2009, Diane von Fürstenberg is the group's President and Steven Kolb is the Executive Director...
in 1985. In the year 2000, the City of New York began honoring American fashion designers by placing bronze plaques along the pavement of Seventh Avenue. Dubbed the "Fashion Walk of Fame", Galanos was one of the first designers to be so honored. In 2007, he became the recipient of the Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, California is a shopping district known for designer label and haute couture fashion. The name generally refers to a three-block long stretch of boutiques and shops but the street stretches further north and south....
Walk of Style Award, and one year later, in 2008, he received a Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
degree honoris causa from the San Francisco Academy of Art University
Academy of Art University
The Academy of Art University , a for-profit university owned by the Stephens Institute, was founded in San Francisco, California in 1929 by Richard S. Stephens...
.
James Galanos was subject of numerous museum solo exhibitions, and his designs are in the permanent collections of important museums worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in New York, Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
in London, U.K, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
, in Los Angeles, Musée Galliera
Musée Galliera
The Musée Galliera, also known as the Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris, is a fashion museum located in the 16th arrondissement at 10, avenue Pierre 1er de Serbie, Paris, France. It is open daily except Tuesdays; an admission fee is charged....
in Paris, France, the Phoenix Art Museum
Phoenix art museum
The Phoenix Art Museum is the Southwest United States' largest art museum for visual art. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,000 works of American, Asian, European, Latin American, Western...
in Phoenix, Arizona, the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Smithsonian Museum
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
in Washington DC, the Museum at 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...
in New York, N.Y., the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
in Brooklyn, N.Y. and the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum
M. H. de Young Memorial Museum
The M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, commonly called simply the de Young Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. It is named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H...
in San Francisco, California, to name a few.
Galanos' career spanned more than half a century. "To James Galanos, fashion is all about making women look beautiful," wrote Anne-Marie Schiro in The New York Times, "and he has devoted 44 years of his life to designing clothes to that end." He "was always a hero to all those who worshiped at the feet of fashion, not just those who wore the clothes", wrote Bernardine Morris in an introduction to the catalogue of Galanos' retrospective exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum in 1996. "He was heralded as the equal of any of the mythic group of French designers who represented the apotheosis of fashion. The difference, then and now, is that Galanos' clothes were ready-to-wear; the French Haute Couture made custom clothes. In this, he is truly an American designer. For, in this country, it is ready-to-wear that dominates fashion, a lesson the French learned after he pointed the way. This may be James Galanos' major contribution to the fashion world: he brought brilliance and quality to styles meant to be bought off the rack"
Personal life
James Galanos has never been married. He is the uncle of fine jewelry designer Diana VincentDiana Vincent
Diana Vincent is an American jewelry designer and businesswoman. Vincent is the niece of American fashion designer James Galanos.-Biography:...
, of Washington Crossing
Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania
Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, is a small unincorporated village located in Upper Makefield Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with a zip code of 18977. Formerly known as "Taylorsville," it is most famous for Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas of 1776 during the...
, Pennsylvania. He lives in West Hollywood and Palm Springs, California.
Museum exhibitions (partial list)
- Los Angeles County Museum of ArtLos Angeles County Museum of ArtThe Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
, Los Angeles, California - Museum at Fashion Institute of TechnologyFashion Institute of TechnologyThe 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...
, New York, N.Y. - Kent State UniversityKent State UniversityKent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...
Museum, Kent, Ohio - Smithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian InstitutionThe Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, Washington DC - Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, New York, N.Y. - Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, N.Y.
- Philadelphia Museum of ArtPhiladelphia Museum of ArtThe Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year...
, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Ohio State UniversityOhio State UniversityThe Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
, Columbus, Ohio - Dallas Museum of ArtDallas Museum of ArtThe Dallas Museum of Art is a major art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, USA, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In 1984, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Arts District, Dallas, Texas...
, Dallas, Texas - Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California
Selected filmography
- Never Wave at a WAC, 1953
- Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So SadOh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So SadOh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad: A Pseudoclassical Tragifarce in a Bastard French Tradition was the first play written by Arthur L. Kopit. The play opened off-Broadway at the Phoenix Repertory Theatre in New York City in 1962 and moved to the Morosco Theatre...
, 1967 - Ginger in the MorningGinger in the MorningGinger in the Morning is a 1974 comedy film starring Sissy Spacek as a hitchhiker. It was also the first American film appearance of a young Fred Ward.- Cast :-External links:* – at the Troma Entertainment movie database...
, 1974 - ProtocolProtocol (film)Protocol is a 1984 comedy film that starred Goldie Hawn and Chris Sarandon. The screenplay was by Buck Henry and it was directed by Herbert Ross....
, 1984
Literature
- Williams, Beryl. Young Faces in Fashion. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1956. ASINAsínAsín is a municipality located in the Cinco Villas comarca of the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, located a few kilometers west of Orés. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 106 inhabitants....
B0007E744Y - Levin, Phyllis Lee. The Wheels of Fashion. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, 1965. ASINAsínAsín is a municipality located in the Cinco Villas comarca of the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, located a few kilometers west of Orés. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 106 inhabitants....
B0007DKMIA - Bender, Marilyn. The Beautiful People. New York: Coward-McCann, 1967. ASINAsínAsín is a municipality located in the Cinco Villas comarca of the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, located a few kilometers west of Orés. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 106 inhabitants....
B001Q8MM7O - Vecchio, Walter. Riley, Robert. The Fashion Makers: A Photographic Record. New York: Bookthrift Co, 1968. ISBN 978-0517005415
- Watkins, Josephine Ellis. Who's Who in Fashion. New York: Fairchild Publications, 1975. ASINAsínAsín is a municipality located in the Cinco Villas comarca of the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, located a few kilometers west of Orés. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 106 inhabitants....
B000MBSMYS - Waltz, Barbara, and Morris, Bernardine. The Fashion Makers. New York: Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, 1978. ISBN 978-0394411668 - Houck, Catherine. The Fashion Encyclopedia. New York: St. Martins Press, 1982. ISBN 978-0312284015
- Diamonstein, Barbaralee. Fashion: The Inside Story. New York: RizzoliRCS MediaGroupRCS MediaGroup S.p.A. , based in Milan and listed on the Italian Stock Exchange, is an international multimedia publishing group that operates in daily newspapers, magazines and books, radio broadcasting, new media and digital and satellite TV...
, 1985. ISBN 978-0847806102 - Milbank, Caroline Rennolds. Couture: The Great Designers. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1985. ISBN 978-0941434515
- Milbank, Caroline Rennolds. New York Fashion: The Evolution of American Style. New York: AbramsABRAMS BooksAbrams, formerly Harry N. Abrams, Inc. , is an American publisher of high-quality art and illustrated books, and the enterprise is presently a subsidiary of the French publisher La Martinière Groupe...
, 1989. ISBN 978-0810926479 - Gold, Annalee. 90 Years of Fashion. New York: Fairchild Publications, 1990. ISBN 978-0870056802
- Bradley, Barry Galanos. Cleveland: Western Reserve Historical SocietyWestern Reserve Historical SocietyThe Western Reserve Historical Society was founded in 1867, making it the oldest cultural institution in Northeast Ohio. WRHS is located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.-About:...
, 1996. ISBN 0-911704-47-7 - Stegemeyer, Anne. Who's Who in Fashion. New York: Fairchild Publications, 2003. ISBN 978-1563672477
- Loring, John. Galanos, James. Lambert, Eleanore Tiffany in Fashion: A Study of American Fashion and Fashion Photography, 1933-2003. New York: AbramsABRAMS BooksAbrams, formerly Harry N. Abrams, Inc. , is an American publisher of high-quality art and illustrated books, and the enterprise is presently a subsidiary of the French publisher La Martinière Groupe...
, 2003. ISBN 978-0810946378 - Sewell, Dennita. Extending the Runway: Tatiana Sorokko Style. Moscow: Russian Fashion Museum, 2010. ISBN 978-0615347608
Sources
- Morrow, Suzanne Stark, The World of James Galanos. Architectural DigestArchitectural DigestArchitectural Digest is an American monthly magazine. Its principal subject is interior design, not — as the name of the magazine might suggest — architecture more generally. The magazine is published by Condé Nast Publications and was founded in 1920, by the Knapp family, who sold it in 1993...
, October 1981 - Talley, André LeonAndré Leon TalleyAndré Leon Talley is the former American editor-at-large for Vogue magazine, listed as Contributing Editor in the April 2010 masthead. Talley has been a front-row regular at fashion shows in New York, Paris, London and Milan for more than 25 years...
, A Certain Quality: Galanos. VogueVogue (magazine)Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, April 1985 - Batterberry, Ariane and Michael, The Loner, Connoisseur. May 1985
- Milbank, Caroline Rennolds, James Galanos: Disciplined Elegance in the Hollywood Hills. Architectural Digest, September 1988
External links
- James Galanos at Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- James Galanos at Artnet.comArtnetartnet is an online service provider for the international art market with headquarters in New York, Berlin and Paris. Additionally, artnet has regional offices in China, the UK and Russia.- Business model :...
- James Galanos at Serge Sorokko GallerySerge SorokkoSerge Sorokko is an American art dealer, publisher and owner of the Serge Sorokko Gallery in San Francisco. He played a major role in establishing the first cultural exchanges in the field of visual arts between the United States and the Soviet Union during the period of perestroika...
- Sewing patterns by James Galanos