Photos By Gail

After working as a costume designer in theater and film during the early 1920s, Norman Norell (1900– 1972) seamlessly transitioned into clothing design as a designer for a wholesale manufacturer, but his career took a quantum leap in 1928 when he went to work for Hattie Carnegie, owner of one of the leading fashion houses in New York, and an elite purveyor of licensed copies of Parisian haute  couture.


Sketch for the Above Design

Norell learned much during his 12-year tenure under the formidable Carnegie. The mitered, Candy-Striped Dress seen here is a rare surviving example of Norell’s early work.

Photographed in the Museum at FIT in New York City