Fashion Designer. She is credited with creating clothing for a generation of business and professional women, in the process inventing the once ubiquitous Capri pants. Born Gloria Wasserman to a well off family, she was raised in Scarsdale, New York, earned a 1947 degree in fine arts from Skidmore College, and following study at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, moved to Paris, France where she apprenticed with artist Fernand Leger while working as a model. Returning to New York in 1951 she worked at Bloomingdale's department store, where she eventually was placed in charge of textiles. In 1958 Gloria Sachs started her own Red Barn line, which catered to young girls, then in 1970 founded Gloria Sachs Designs marketing, upscale business attire at Bergdorf Goodman, Sacks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, and similar stores, along the way introducing long skirts and tailored silk shirts while creating the Capri pants which she named for the islands where she spent her 1953 honeymoon. She retired from her company in 1994 and throughout her life was a noted painter and sculptor, exhibiting her works in New York's Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia's Pratt Institute, and other major venues. She lived out her days in her native New York City and died of the effects of advanced age.
Fashion Designer. She is credited with creating clothing for a generation of business and professional women, in the process inventing the once ubiquitous Capri pants. Born Gloria Wasserman to a well off family, she was raised in Scarsdale, New York, earned a 1947 degree in fine arts from Skidmore College, and following study at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, moved to Paris, France where she apprenticed with artist Fernand Leger while working as a model. Returning to New York in 1951 she worked at Bloomingdale's department store, where she eventually was placed in charge of textiles. In 1958 Gloria Sachs started her own Red Barn line, which catered to young girls, then in 1970 founded Gloria Sachs Designs marketing, upscale business attire at Bergdorf Goodman, Sacks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, and similar stores, along the way introducing long skirts and tailored silk shirts while creating the Capri pants which she named for the islands where she spent her 1953 honeymoon. She retired from her company in 1994 and throughout her life was a noted painter and sculptor, exhibiting her works in New York's Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia's Pratt Institute, and other major venues. She lived out her days in her native New York City and died of the effects of advanced age.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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