Geoffrey Beene#Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award

{{Infobox company

| name = Geoffrey Beene, LLC

| logo =

| type = Privately held company

| foundation = 1963

| location = New York City, New York, U.S.

| key_people = Geoffrey Beene and G. Thompson Hutton

| industry = Clothing, Eyewear, and Formal wear

| products = Clothes, perfume, formal wear, sunglasses, eyewear, jewelry, luggage

| revenue =

| num_employees =

| parent = Authentic Brands Group (licensed to Versa Group)

| website = {{URL|http://www.geoffreybeene.com|GeoffreyBeene.com}}

}}Beene was born on August 30, 1924, as Samuel Albert Bozeman Jr."[https://books.google.com/books?id=teMCAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Geoffrey+Beene%22+Bozeman&pg=PA30 "American Beauty: The World of Geoffrey Beene"], by Patricia Morrisoe, New York magazine, May 30, 1988, p.32 ("WWD takes great delight in needling him with references to 'Sammy Bosman Jr. (According to Beene, his real name is Samuel Albert Bozeman Jr.)" in the small rural town of Haynesville, Louisiana, located just south of the Arkansas state line.{{cite web|url = https://search.lsu.edu/textilemuseum/exhibitions/geoffreybeene.php|title = Coming Home: Geoffrey Beene|website = Louisiana State University|accessdate = September 25, 2024}} He was born into a family of doctors and was encouraged to follow in their footsteps. He studied medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans but dropped out in 1946, after three years of study. Beene moved to Los Angeles, where he studied fashion design at the University of Southern California and worked in the display department of the I. Magnin retail store until 1947.{{cite web | title=Geoffrey Beene Biography | url=http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/geoffreybeene.html | publisher=Infoplease.com}}

Later that year, he moved to New York City to attend the Traphagen School of Fashion.{{Cite web|url=http://www.fitnyc.edu/museum/exhibitions/traphagen-school.php|title=The Traphagen School: Fostering American Fashion|website=Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)|access-date=December 1, 2019}} He then moved to Paris, where he attended the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne (ECSCP) and the couture house of Molyneux. In 1949, he returned to New York, where he became Assistant Designer at the Seventh Avenue house of Harmay. In 1958, he left Harmay to design with Teal Traina, before founding his eponymous design house.{{cite web | title=Geoffrey Beene fashion designer | url=http://www.vogue.com/voguepedia/Geoffrey_Beene | access-date=October 1, 2013 | archive-date=October 2, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002221919/http://www.vogue.com/voguepedia/Geoffrey_Beene | url-status=dead }}

File:Pink evening minidress by Geoffrey Beene, American, 1968-69.jpg){{cite web |title=Woman's Evening Dress |url=https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/86165 |website=philamuseum.org |publisher=Philadelphia Museum of Art |access-date=January 11, 2022 |language=en}}]]

File:"Mercury" evening dress, Geoffrey Beene, Fall-Winter 1994-5.jpg "Mercury" evening dress by Beene, Fall-Winter 1994-5 (PMA){{cite web |title=Woman's "Mercury" Evening Dress |url=https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/91843 |website=philamuseum.org |publisher=Philadelphia Museum of Art |access-date=January 11, 2022 |language=en}}]]

Beene founded his firm, Geoffrey Beene, Inc., in New York City in 1963, in partnership with Teal Traina's Leo Orlandi in a Seventh Avenue showroom.

A year later, he was awarded the Coty American Fashion Critics' Award, one of the most prestigious awards in fashion. His first collection was featured on the cover of Vogue Magazine.

In his 1970 collection, Beene applied the use of inexpensive fabrics such as sweatshirt and denim fabric for evening dresses. Introduced in 1971, the Beene Bag line of women’s wear used the same silhouettes as his couture line. By the mid-1970s, Beene had a number of licensing agreements for products such as eyeglasses and bed sheets, and also his most famously known cologne called Grey Flannel, launched in 1975. It contains notes of orange, lemon, rose, geranium, sandalwood and cedar wood, and is considered a classic men's fragrance winning a FIFI Award in 1976. In 1976, Beene became the first American designer to show a collection in Milan, Italy.{{Cite news |date=September 12, 1976 |title=Geoffrey Beene Goes to Milan |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/12/archives/geoffrey-beene-goes-to-milan.html |access-date=May 15, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}} This success led to his sixth Coty Award in 1977, for giving impetus to American fashion abroad. In 1982, Beene received his eighth Coty Award; the most awarded to any one designer.{{cite web | title=Designer Geoffrey Beene dead at 77 | date=September 28, 2004 | url=http://www.today.com/id/6125130/ns/today-today_style/t/designer-geoffrey-beene-dead/#.UepYUm1t4aM | publisher=NBC's Today show}}

In 1986, Beene was named The Council of Fashion Designers of America's Designer of the Year. Two years later, the Council of Fashion Designers of America awarded Beene the Special Award for Fashion as Art. In 1989, he opened the first Geoffrey Beene retail boutique on Fifth Avenue.

Beene's clients included Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Nancy Reagan, Faye Dunaway and Glenn Close.{{cite web | title=Geoffrey Beene: 1927–2004 – Death, Fashion Designers and Stylists | url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20145677,00.html | publisher=People Magazine}} Beene was known as both an innovator and a teacher. Several of his former apprentices, Kay Unger, Alber Elbaz and Maria Pinto are now successful fashion designers.

On September 28, 2004, Beene died from pneumonia, as a complication of squamous-cell carcinoma, at his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/29/obituaries/geoffrey-beene-innovator-of-american-fashion-dies-at-77.html|title = Geoffrey Beene, Couturier Who Approached Design With an Artist's Eye, Dies at 77 [sic]|last = Schiro|first = Anne-Marie|date = September 29, 2004|newspaper = The New York Times|page = A23|accessdate = September 25, 2024|url-access = limited}}{{cite news|url = https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/geoffrey-beene-cancer-research-hutton-10177031/|title = Geoffrey Beene's Cancer Research Project|last = Lockwood|first = Lisa|date = July 10, 2015|accessdate = September 25, 2024|work = Women's Wear Daily}}

In honor of Beene's fashion legacy, the Council of Fashion Designers of America created the annual Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement award in 1984.

; Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients{{cite web |title=Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award |url=http://geoffreybeene.com/geoffrey-beene-lifetime-achievement-award-cfda-geoffrey-beene-design-scholar-award/ |publisher=Geoffrey Beene |access-date=November 22, 2016 |archive-date=October 20, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020205246/http://geoffreybeene.com/geoffrey-beene-lifetime-achievement-award-cfda-geoffrey-beene-design-scholar-award/ |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |date=November 6, 2023 |title=CFDA Fashion Awards |url=https://cfda.com/cfda-fashion-awards |access-date=November 8, 2023 |website=cfda.com}}

All net profits from Geoffrey Beene products are donated to philanthropic causes, such as cancer research, Alzheimer's research, domestic violence prevention and response, Save the Children, and educational programs, including scholarships for students majoring in fashion and related disciplines.{{cite web | title=Geoffrey Beene website | url=http://geoffreybeene.com/philanthropy.html | access-date=July 1, 2009 | archive-date=July 14, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090714065408/http://www.geoffreybeene.com/philanthropy.html | url-status=dead }}

In 2007, The Geoffrey Beene Foundation formed a strategic alliance with the FSF YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund to further the mutual goal of expanding support for students seeking careers in the Fashion Industry. The foundation has donated to the FSF in excess of $5 million committed through 2016.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

• [http://www.geoffreybeene.com/ Official company website]
• {{FMD designer|id=geoffrey-beene}}
• [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/42547 American Ingenuity: Sportswear 1930s-1970s], an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Geoffrey Beene (see index)
• {{IMDb name|0066457}}

{{Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award}}

{{American sportswear}}

{{Authentic Brands Group}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beene, Geoffrey}}

Category:1924 births

Category:2004 deaths

Category:20th-century American businesspeople

Category:American fashion designers

Category:People from Haynesville, Louisiana

Category:Tulane University alumni

Category:Deaths from pneumonia in New York City

Category:Deaths from cancer in New York (state)

Category:People from the Upper East Side

Category:Authentic Brands Group

Category:Traphagen School of Fashion alumni