NORELL, NORMAN 1900-1972

Popularized the culotte; american pacesetter in the world of high fashion

Clothes-Conscious Mother

Born Norman Levinson in Noblesville, Indiana, Norell learned about high fashion at an early age from his mother, who subscribed to French fashion magazines and dressed in avantgarde styles. He studied at the Parsons School of Design in New York City and later became a costume designer for Paramount. In 1928 Norell went to work for the legendary Hattie Carnegie, with whom he stayed until 1940, when he went out on his own.

High Fashion

Norell was one of the few American dress designers considered to be an equal by many Parisian couturiers in the 1940s and 1950s, when Paris still ruled the fashion world. Considered the father of American high fashion (Hattie Carnegie was the mother), Norell created designs that were sophisticated, dramatic, and of the highest workmanship. He was the first to show long evening skirts topped with sweaters. His long, glittering, sequined dresses, popularized by Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, never went out of style. The smoking robe, the chemise, the jumper, and the pantsuit were part of his collection. His culotte, a divided skirt that looks like a conventional skirt but allows for easy movement, was heavily copied by competitors.

The Artificial "Norell Look."

Dramatic by nature, Norell was well known for the artificial "Norell Look" he created for his models: whitened faces, burnt-corked eye-lids, and shingled haircuts.

Council of Fashion Designers

Norell was the founder and first president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. He was also elected the first Hall of Fame designer by the American press in 1956 after receiving three Coty American Fashion Critics awards. In 1962 he was the first designer to receive an honorary degree of doctor of fine arts, conferred on him by the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.