Sonja de Lennart
Encyclopedia
Sonja de Lennart is a European fashion designer. In 1948, she invented Capri pants
.
After attending business college in Breslau, her dream of becoming a fashion designer became a passion. She studied design despite her father’s extremely strong opposition and threat of disinheritance. She secretly enrolled as a student apprentice at Erich Boehm Atelier and later at Herman Palm Atelier in Berlin in which she studied the skillful trade of tailoring and the customizing of garments – from elegant hats to evening gowns – until she became a master craftsman of her trade graduating as a textile engineer. After World War II
, she was entered as a member into the prestigious Handwerksrolle of the Chamber of Trade. After the political regime
had destroyed the family fortune, it was de Lennart who, after World War II, restored her family financially with her fashion design trade.
. Her fashion career began with a rare but fortunate circumstance when the fashion advisor of the Taylor’s Guild, M. Ponater, allowed de Lennart to exhibit one of her first creations (a hand painted dress which she painted herself and displayed on a mannequin) in one corner of Ponater’s booth of the leading Fashion Trade Fair, Handwerksmesse, where he was displaying and selling his own fashion collection. This one and only opportunity to show her talent had customers standing in line to place orders for which she wasn’t prepared. This event turned into the beginning of the distribution of de Lennart’s creations. The demand for her designs was so overwhelming that soon after, the family began to manufacture another of her creations, imitation leather vestures, as well as three-quarter length coats that were exhibited at the Craftsman Fair and distributed nationwide becoming a bestseller.
In that same year, she created a wide-swinging skirt with a wide belt (which she modeled herself), a blouse, and hat. Her design collection became known as the Capri Collection. She chose this name as it was her family’s love for the island of Capri
that captivated her together with a recorded song sent to her by her family in America called, "Isle of Capri
". Her love for this song and her increased fondness for the Island of Capri, gave her the inspiration of the Capri name.
In 1948, after years of women wearing the typical wide and rather masculine pants, de Lennart created the sexy tight three-quarter length Capri pants with the stylish short slit on the outer-side of the pant leg. The original classic Capri Pants were designed in specific lengths for winter and summer wear. In 1949, German actress, Mady Rahl
, and Austrian actress, Erni Mangold, both posed for Sonja de Lennart in the original summer- and winter-style Capri pant, respectively.
In 1952, Edith Head
recognized the innovative and revolutionary style of Sonja de Lennart and had her Capri Collection [the wide-swinging Capri skirt, the high-neck Capri blouse, and the wide Capri belt and Capri pants] sewn by the Italian Fontana sisters for Audrey Hepburn
in the movie, Roman Holiday
. In 1953, Hubert de Givenchy
had de Lennart’s Capri pants stitched for Audrey Hepburn, which she wore in the movie Sabrina
(1954).
Edith Head introduced the Capri skirt, Capri blouse, Capri pants, and Capri belt to the world; but, it was the Capri pants that made history. Among the many who have worn the fashionable Capri pants are Doris Day
, Jane Russell
, Katharine Hepburn
, Gina Lollobrigida
, Ava Gardner
, Elizabeth Taylor
, Jacqueline Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe
, Kim Novak
, Sophia Loren
, Anita Ekberg
, and Mary Tyler Moore
. Capri pants marched even in the Existentialist Bars from Saint-Germain-des-Pres
in Paris
: “Young women loved themselves in black roll necks, tight Capri pants, and flatties [flat sandals] along with straight long hair and black-painted eyes a la Juliette Greco
,” reported Professor Gundula Wolter (1994, 270).
Sonja de Lennart was also the first designer who utilized the famous Everglaze textile from America which her family from California sent to de Lennart upon her request. Subsequently, it developed into big business for the American manufacturer. The material was then licensed to European companies; as a result, foreign royalties accounted for more than 70 percent of the firm’s total profits.
In 1955 in Munich, Sonja de Lennart opened her new, much larger fashion house and renamed the company Maison Haase to include, in part, both her and her husband’s name. De Lennart’s fashion house became the place to be. Major movie companies, prominent opera directors, costume designers, and notables from all over the world traveled to Europe to acquire Sonja de Lennart’s design. Among those were Ingrid Bergman
, Gary Cooper
, Maria Schell
, Curd Jürgens
, and Klaus Kinski
as well as nobles like the Countess of Stauffenberg; the Woolworth heir, Sunny von Bülow
; Princess Auersperg and Queen Soraya Esfandiary
, the wife of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, The 5th Dimension, and many others.
De Lennart became one of the most innovative European fashion designers after World War II influencing a whole generation of new designers and was considered a leading pioneer of her time by major magazines wherein she was interviewed along with legendary fashion designers as Yves Saint Laurent, Paco Rabanne
, and André Courrèges
. There was almost no fashion designer who did not add Capri pants to their collection.
Capri pants
Capri pants are mid-calf pants worn in warm weather. Variants end below the knee and calf...
.
Early life
Sonja de Lennart was born in 1920 into a multicultural family and is the daughter of an industrialist and syndicus. In her youth, she was a keen athlete in swimming and track and field. By the age of eight, de Lennart had already won many swimming competitions. In 1932, she participated in the official National Youth Competitions as an athlete in track and field running the 100 m and 1000 m sprint. She was an active member of the Classic Theater Society along with being a talented student of the Breslau State Opera ballet whose teacher was the famous dancer and ballet master, Anna Capana.After attending business college in Breslau, her dream of becoming a fashion designer became a passion. She studied design despite her father’s extremely strong opposition and threat of disinheritance. She secretly enrolled as a student apprentice at Erich Boehm Atelier and later at Herman Palm Atelier in Berlin in which she studied the skillful trade of tailoring and the customizing of garments – from elegant hats to evening gowns – until she became a master craftsman of her trade graduating as a textile engineer. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, she was entered as a member into the prestigious Handwerksrolle of the Chamber of Trade. After the political regime
Regime
The word regime refers to a set of conditions, most often of a political nature.-Politics:...
had destroyed the family fortune, it was de Lennart who, after World War II, restored her family financially with her fashion design trade.
Fashion career
In 1945, after the war, Sonja de Lennart began to produce fashion wear and opened her first boutique, Salon Sonja, in MunichMunich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. Her fashion career began with a rare but fortunate circumstance when the fashion advisor of the Taylor’s Guild, M. Ponater, allowed de Lennart to exhibit one of her first creations (a hand painted dress which she painted herself and displayed on a mannequin) in one corner of Ponater’s booth of the leading Fashion Trade Fair, Handwerksmesse, where he was displaying and selling his own fashion collection. This one and only opportunity to show her talent had customers standing in line to place orders for which she wasn’t prepared. This event turned into the beginning of the distribution of de Lennart’s creations. The demand for her designs was so overwhelming that soon after, the family began to manufacture another of her creations, imitation leather vestures, as well as three-quarter length coats that were exhibited at the Craftsman Fair and distributed nationwide becoming a bestseller.
In that same year, she created a wide-swinging skirt with a wide belt (which she modeled herself), a blouse, and hat. Her design collection became known as the Capri Collection. She chose this name as it was her family’s love for the island of Capri
Capri
Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...
that captivated her together with a recorded song sent to her by her family in America called, "Isle of Capri
Isle of Capri (song)
"Isle of Capri" is a popular song.The music was written by Wilhelm Grosz , the lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy. The song was published in 1934....
". Her love for this song and her increased fondness for the Island of Capri, gave her the inspiration of the Capri name.
In 1948, after years of women wearing the typical wide and rather masculine pants, de Lennart created the sexy tight three-quarter length Capri pants with the stylish short slit on the outer-side of the pant leg. The original classic Capri Pants were designed in specific lengths for winter and summer wear. In 1949, German actress, Mady Rahl
Mady Rahl
Mady Rahl was a German stage and film actress.Born Edith Gertrud Meta Raschke in Neukölln, now part of Berlin, Rahl trained as an actress and dancer. In 1935 she made her stage debut in Leipzig under the direction of Douglas Sirk and started her film career in 1936 with the movie Der...
, and Austrian actress, Erni Mangold, both posed for Sonja de Lennart in the original summer- and winter-style Capri pant, respectively.
In 1952, Edith Head
Edith Head
Edith Head was an American costume designer who won eight Academy Awards, more than any other woman.-Early life and career:...
recognized the innovative and revolutionary style of Sonja de Lennart and had her Capri Collection [the wide-swinging Capri skirt, the high-neck Capri blouse, and the wide Capri belt and Capri pants] sewn by the Italian Fontana sisters for Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
in the movie, Roman Holiday
Roman Holiday
Roman Holiday is a 1953 romantic comedy directed and produced by William Wyler and starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. It was written by John Dighton and Dalton Trumbo, though with Trumbo on the Hollywood blacklist, he did not receive a credit; instead, Ian McLellan Hunter fronted for him...
. In 1953, 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...
had de Lennart’s Capri pants stitched for Audrey Hepburn, which she wore in the movie Sabrina
Sabrina
-People:*Sabrina , a feminine given name *Sabrina , British entertainer*Sabrina *Sabrina *Sabrina Salerno , Italian pop singer aka Sabrina...
(1954).
Edith Head introduced the Capri skirt, Capri blouse, Capri pants, and Capri belt to the world; but, it was the Capri pants that made history. Among the many who have worn the fashionable Capri pants are Doris Day
Doris Day
Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...
, Jane Russell
Jane Russell
Jane Russell was an American film actress and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s....
, Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
, Gina Lollobrigida
Gina Lollobrigida
Gina Lollobrigida is an Italian actress, photojournalist and sculptress. She was one of the most popular European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s. She was also an iconic sex symbol of the 1950s. Today, she remains an active supporter of Italian and Italian American causes, particularly the...
, Ava Gardner
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
, 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...
, Jacqueline Kennedy, 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....
, Kim Novak
Kim Novak
Kim Novak is an American film and television actress. She began her career with her roles in Pushover and Phffft! but achieved greater prominence in the 1955 film Picnic...
, Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
, Anita Ekberg
Anita Ekberg
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg is a Swedish model, actress and cult sex symbol. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita which features the legendary scene of her cavorting in Trevi Fountain alongside Marcello Mastroianni.-Biography:Ekberg was born in...
, and Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms. Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as...
. Capri pants marched even in the Existentialist Bars from Saint-Germain-des-Pres
Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Saint-Germain-des-Prés is an area of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, located around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés....
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
: “Young women loved themselves in black roll necks, tight Capri pants, and flatties [flat sandals] along with straight long hair and black-painted eyes a la Juliette Greco
Juliette Gréco
Juliette Gréco, — also Michelle – is a French actress and popular chanson singer.-Early life and family:Juliette Gréco was born in Montpellier to a Corsican father and a mother who became active in the Résistance, in the Hérault département of southern France. She was raised by her maternal...
,” reported Professor Gundula Wolter (1994, 270).
Sonja de Lennart was also the first designer who utilized the famous Everglaze textile from America which her family from California sent to de Lennart upon her request. Subsequently, it developed into big business for the American manufacturer. The material was then licensed to European companies; as a result, foreign royalties accounted for more than 70 percent of the firm’s total profits.
In 1955 in Munich, Sonja de Lennart opened her new, much larger fashion house and renamed the company Maison Haase to include, in part, both her and her husband’s name. De Lennart’s fashion house became the place to be. Major movie companies, prominent opera directors, costume designers, and notables from all over the world traveled to Europe to acquire Sonja de Lennart’s design. Among those were Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
, Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
, Maria Schell
Maria Schell
Maria Margarethe Anna Schell was an Austrian/Swiss actress, who won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival in 1956 for Gervaise....
, Curd Jürgens
Curd Jürgens
Curd Gustav Andreas Gottlieb Franz Jürgens was a German-Austrian stage and film actor. He was usually billed in English-speaking films as Curt Jurgens.-Early life:...
, and Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski , was a German actor. He appeared in more than 130 films, and is perhaps best-remembered as a leading role actor in Werner Herzog films: Aguirre, the Wrath of God , Nosferatu the Vampyre , Woyzeck , Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde .-Early...
as well as nobles like the Countess of Stauffenberg; the Woolworth heir, Sunny von Bülow
Sunny von Bülow
Martha Sharp Crawford von Bülow , known as Sunny von Bülow, was an American heiress and socialite. Her husband, Claus von Bülow, was convicted of attempting her murder by insulin overdose, but the conviction was overturned on appeal...
; Princess Auersperg and Queen Soraya Esfandiary
Soraya Esfandiary
Princess Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari was the second wife and Queen Consort of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the late Shah of Iran.-Birth:...
, the wife of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, The 5th Dimension, and many others.
De Lennart became one of the most innovative European fashion designers after World War II influencing a whole generation of new designers and was considered a leading pioneer of her time by major magazines wherein she was interviewed along with legendary fashion designers as Yves Saint Laurent, Paco Rabanne
Paco Rabanne
Francisco "Paco" Rabaneda Cuervo, more commonly known as Paco Rabanne is a Franco-Spanish fashion designer. He fled Spain for France with his mother when the Spanish Civil War broke out...
, and André Courrèges
André Courrèges
André Courrèges is a French fashion designer, known for his ultra-modern designs. At the age of 25, after studying to be a civil engineer, he went to Paris to work at Geanne Lafaurie fashion design house...
. There was almost no fashion designer who did not add Capri pants to their collection.
External links
- http://18.Juli 2003 / sw Abbildung: The Fifties (Fashionsourcebooks), Paperback Verlag http://www.wasistwas.de/sport-kultur/alle-artikel/artikel/link//462cb9e5d0/article/die-caprihose-modisches-highlight-der-50er-jahre.html
- Sonja de Lennart Official site
- Der Grosse Brockhaus Lexikon/The Great Brockhaus (Bertelsmann Group) 2002-2007
- Lexikon.Meyers.de/wissen/Caprihose Click here: Meyers Lexikonverlag |Suchergebnis [search result] für »sonja de lennart«
- Jasmin Magazine, Number 12/69, 06/09/69, Interview, http://www.guj.de/
- Sonja de Lennart: Fashion Designer and Inventor of the famous Capri Pants Official site
- AZ AbendzeitungAbendzeitungThe Abendzeitung , sometimes abbreviated to AZ, is a liberal morning tabloid newspaper from Munich, Germany. A localized edition is published in Nuremberg. The paper is published six days a week; the masthead of the Saturday edition is held in light blue...
, B1017A, 19 August 1955, "A household name of international fashion design....For 20 years Sonja worked as fashion designer in inland and foreign countries" http://abendzeitung.de - Freundin Magazine 8/69, 8 April 1969 3Z3875C, p. 44, 45, 46, 47 http://www.freundin.de/
- Evening Paper AbendzeitungAbendzeitungThe Abendzeitung , sometimes abbreviated to AZ, is a liberal morning tabloid newspaper from Munich, Germany. A localized edition is published in Nuremberg. The paper is published six days a week; the masthead of the Saturday edition is held in light blue...
, AZ, B1017A, February 7/8, 1955 http://abendzeitung.de - - Mueller Science/University of Zuerich - Caprihosen [Capri Pants] (invented by Sonja de Lennart 1948) (German)
- SZ Newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, [206] 28 August 1959 ”Fashion Show---Eye Candy for Chubbies" http://sueddeutsche.de
- Evening Paper AbendzeitungAbendzeitungThe Abendzeitung , sometimes abbreviated to AZ, is a liberal morning tabloid newspaper from Munich, Germany. A localized edition is published in Nuremberg. The paper is published six days a week; the masthead of the Saturday edition is held in light blue...
, AZ, B1017A, 9 August 2010 "A Life for the Capri-Pants" (portrait) - BILD, 117/20, C8495A, 20 May 2011, p.6, http://www.bild.de/ (portrait)
- Der Spiegel, Zeitgeschehen online, 16 May 2011 "Fashion Classics" http://www.spiegel.de/
- Cosmopolitan, The Great Fashion Encyclopedia, "C like Capri pants" http://cosmopolitan.de
- Jasmin Magazine 26/69, 12/22/69 B8489, p. 29, http://www.guj.de/
- Epoca Magazine, 11/1967
- Evening Paper AbendzeitungAbendzeitungThe Abendzeitung , sometimes abbreviated to AZ, is a liberal morning tabloid newspaper from Munich, Germany. A localized edition is published in Nuremberg. The paper is published six days a week; the masthead of the Saturday edition is held in light blue...
, AZ, 16/17, August 1969, B1017A http://abendzeitung.de - Jasmin Magazine 25/69, December 8, 1969 B8489D p. 181, 182 http://www.guj.de/
- Freundin Magazine 17 December 1968, 26/68, 3Z3875D, p. 8 http://www.freundin.de/
- Mady RahlMady RahlMady Rahl was a German stage and film actress.Born Edith Gertrud Meta Raschke in Neukölln, now part of Berlin, Rahl trained as an actress and dancer. In 1935 she made her stage debut in Leipzig under the direction of Douglas Sirk and started her film career in 1936 with the movie Der...
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