Cynthia Rowley
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
fashion designer. The fashion label she created in the early 1980s bears her name.
Background
A native of BarringtonBarrington
- Australia :* Barrington, New South Wales* Barrington River * Barrington Tops National Park, New South Wales* Barrington, Tasmania* Barrington, Queensland- Canada :* Barrington, Nova Scotia* Barrington Head, Nova Scotia...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
(an affluent northwestern suburb of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
), she is one of three children born to Ed Rowley, a former science teacher, and his wife, Clementine. She graduated from Barrington High School
Barrington High School (Lake County, Illinois)
Barrington High School is a public four-year high school located in Barrington, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Barrington Community Unit School District 220.-Original structure:...
in Barrington, Illinois
Barrington, Illinois
Barrington is a suburban village in Cook County, Illinois and Lake County, Illinois. The population was 10,327 at the 2010 census. Located approximately northwest of Chicago, the area features wetlands, forest preserves, parks and horse trails in a country-suburban setting...
(1976)http://www.bhsaa.org/search/search.asp?cdlGroupID=12077&txt_state=New+York and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1981).
Known for what 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...
has called "flirty, vibrantly colored dresses and tops in wispy materials" that have "a whiff of the carefree, simple spirit" of Claire McCardell
Claire McCardell
Claire McCardell was an American fashion designer in the arena of ready-to-wear clothing in the 20th century. From the 1930s to the 1950s, she was known for designing functional, affordable, and stylish women’s sportswear within the constraints of mass-production, and is today acknowledged as the...
, Rowley launched her business in 1981 or 1983 with $3,000 in seed money from one of her grandmothers. "Several months later, she held a fashion show in her apartment, inviting every important fashion editor in New York, as well as Andy Warhol and a smattering of movie stars -- none of whom she knew and none of whom attended."
Since then the Cynthia Rowley Collection, incorporated in 1988, has grown to include women's wear, shoes, handbags, eyewear, belts, dishes, legwear, hats, color cosmetics, and fragrance. Rowley introduced menswear in 1998 as well as a women's secondary line, Rowley by Cynthia Rowley, both licensed to Italian sportswear manufacturer Stile Moda SpA. The menswear collections were later reduced to a smaller volume, and in 2011 Rowley presented the Mr. Powers collection, a limited menswear range named after her husband Bill Powers. The women's secondary line was discontinued. Rowley's fashions are presented bi-annually at New York Fashion Week
New York Fashion Week
The semi-annual New York Fashion Week, branded Mercedes-Benz FashionWeek in 2009, is held in February and September of each year in New York City. It is one of four major fashion weeks held around the world .-History:The first New York Fashion Week, then called Press Week, was the world's first...
and sold in signature Cynthia Rowley stores in New York City, Charleston, Chicago, Boston, East Hampton, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, as well as at the company's webstore
Webstore
A webstore is a website that sells products or services and typically has an online shopping cart associated with it. With the popularity of the Internet rapidly increasing, online shopping became advantageous for retail store owners, and many traditional “brick and mortar” stores saw value in...
. Shops in Beijing and Shanghai are opening soon. The collection is also represented in better department and specialty stores both domestically and internationally.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America
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...
honored Rowley with a Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent in 1994, after she had been in the business for twelve years, and a nomination for the Perry Ellis Award for New Menswear Design Talent.
The designer and Ilene Rosenzweig, her best friend and a former reporter for The New York Times, also created a line of home accessories called Swell, which made its debut at Target in 2003.
It was announced in November 2009 that Rowley would be redesigning the uniform
Uniform
A uniform is a set of standard clothing worn by members of an organization while participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency services, security guards, in some workplaces and schools and by inmates...
s for United Airlines
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
. Her designs were to be seen on the United flight attendant
Flight attendant
Flight attendants or cabin crew are members of an aircrew employed by airlines primarily to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers aboard commercial flights, on select business jet aircraft, and on some military aircraft.-History:The role of a flight attendant derives from that of similar...
s, pilots
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
, customer service representatives, ramp service and maintenance employees. United announced in mid-2010, after its planned merger with Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines was a major American airline now merged with United Airlines. On May 3, 2010, Continental Airlines, Inc. and UAL, Inc. announced a merger via a stock swap, and on October 1, 2010, the merger closed and UAL changed its name to United Continental Holdings, Inc...
had been made public, that Rowley would redesign the uniforms for the combined workforce. In mid-2011 United employees were informed that Rowley was no longer involved in the uniform redesign program scheduled to launch in mid-2012.
Television and books
Rowley has appeared as a judge on the reality television programs America's Next Top ModelAmerica's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model is a reality television show in which a number of women compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry....
, Project Runway
Project Runway
Project Runway is an American reality television series on Lifetime Television, previously on the Bravo network, which focuses on fashion design and is hosted by model Heidi Klum. The contestants compete with each other to create the best clothes and are restricted in time, materials and theme...
and Design Star and has been a guest on The Today Show, Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
, The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
, and the Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
, among other programs.
She has written and co-written several books:
- Slim: A Fantasy Memoir (Random House, 2007)
- The Swell Dressed Party (with co-author Ilene Rosenzweig, Atria, 2005)
- Swell Holiday (with Rosenzweig, Atria, 2003)
- Home Swell Home (with Rosenzweig, Atria, 2002)
Personal life
Rowley married Tom Sullivan in 1988; he died in 1994.She married William (Bill) Keenan, an interior designer and sculptor, in 1996 (divorced); the officiant was Rudolph W. Giuliani, then the mayor of New York City. They have a daughter, Kit Clementine (born 1999).http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9807EFDF123FF93BA35755C0A9669C8B63&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Rowley married William (Bill) Powers, an editor, gallery owner and writer, on 17 September 2005, at the home of photographer Peter Beard.http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/daily/2005-09/050916-fashion-bites.aspx They have a daughter, Gigi Clementine (born 2005).http://www.tangomag.com/cynthia-rowley-bill-powers