Tiger Morse

{{Infobox person

| name = Tiger Morse

| other_names = Joan Marion Sand,
Joan Tiger Morse,
Joan Morse

| birth_name = Joan Sugarman

| birth_date = April 23, 1931

| birth_place = New York City, New York, United States

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1972|04|22|1931|04|23}}

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

| occupation = Fashion designer, businessperson, socialite, costume designer

| movement = Avant-garde

| spouse = William A. Moses (divorced)

| children = 1

| father = Morris Henry Sugarman

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

}}

Joan "Tiger" Morse (April 23, 1931 – April 22, 1972), was an American fashion designer, businessperson and socialite.{{Cite news |date=1972-04-25 |title=Joan (Tiger) Morse Is Dead; Avant-Garde Fashion Designer |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/25/archives/joan-tiger-morse-is-dead-avantgarde-fashion-designer.html |access-date=2023-02-25 |issn=0362-4331}} She was known for her 1960s avant-garde clothing design and had owned a few boutique shops in New York City, with celebrity clients.{{Cite news |date=1964-10-26 |title=A New 'Tiger' Morse |pages=19 |work=Quad-City Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/119655409/a-new-tiger-morse/ |access-date=2023-02-25}}{{Cite news |date=1966-01-31 |title=Fluorescent Fashions |pages=36 |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/119655478/chicago-tribune/ |access-date=2023-02-25 |issn=1085-6706}} Morse was the subject of the Andy Warhol film, Tiger Morse (Reel 14 of ****) (1967).{{Cite web |last=Morra |first=Anne |date=July 23, 2014 |title=Tiger Morse: Fashion Guru and Andy Warhol Star |url=https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2014/07/23/tiger-morse-fashion-guru-and-andy-warhol-star/ |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Tiger Morse (Reel 14 of ****) |url=https://www.viennale.at/en/films/tiger-morse-reel-14 |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=Viennale, Vienna International Film Festival |language=en}} She also worked as a costume designer for John Chamberlain film The Secret Life of Hernando Cortez (1968). Morse lived most of her life in New York City, with a period in London in late life.

Early life and education

Joan Sugarman was born on April 23, 1931, in New York City, the daughter of Marcia Sand (née Freedman), and Russian Empire-born architect Morris Henry Sugarman.{{Cite news |date=October 13, 1946 |title=M.H. Sugarman, 58, Architect, Is Dead; Former Head of Firm Here Won Institute's Gold Medal in '25-- Designed New Yorker Hotel |language=en |pages=60 |work=The New York Times |url=https://nyti.ms/3EBTrh4 |access-date=2023-02-25 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |title=Marcia Freedman, Marriage |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:248N-GGB |website=New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938 |via=FamilySearch}} Her family was Jewish and her parents divorced in 1944. She attended the Lincoln School, and the Cherry Lawn School in Darien, Connecticut.{{Cite news |date=September 23, 1951 |title=Joan N. Sand; Ex-Student at Sorbonne Will Be Bride William Moses |language=en |pages=105 |work=The New York Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/09/23/356907552.html?pageNumber=105 |access-date=2023-02-25}}

Morse attended Syracuse University and Sorbonne University. She legally changed her name to Joan M. Sand (her mother's maiden name), before her engagement in 1951 to William A. Moses.

Career

Morse was the proprietress of the "A La Carte" starting in 1955, later known as the "Kaleidoscope" starting in 1964; Tiger's Toys; and the "Teeny Weeny", a boutique located on Madison Avenue at 73rd Street in New York City.{{Cite book |last=Bosworth |first=Patricia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cyyjgCS5eO4C |title=Diane Arbus: A Biography |date=1995 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-31207-2 |pages=211 |language=en}} She sold ready-to-wear, and made-to-measure clothing. She also designed shoes and boots. In 1967, Morse was working on designing clothing with kinetics (early electronic clothing) for the "psychedelic collection".{{Cite news |last=Bjorkman |first=Carol |date=January 9, 1967 |title=Features: Carol |volume=114 |pages=26 |work=Women's Wear Daily |issue=5 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1523523105|id={{ProQuest|1523523105}} }} Her stores were decorated eccentrically. Amongst her clients were Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Florence Knoll Bassett, Jean Harvey Vanderbilt,{{Cite web |title=Joan Morse |url=https://jfk.artifacts.archives.gov/people/246/joan-morse |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum |language=en}} and Twiggy.{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H1YEAAAAMBAJ |title=LIFE |date=April 14, 1967 |publisher=Time, Inc |volume=62 |pages=99 |language=en |chapter=Fashion: Twiggy Makes U.S. Styles Swing Too |issn=0024-3019 |issue=15}}

In her early career Morse was interested in working with saris, kimonos, and textiles from Asia. In 1962, Morse was featured in an eight page spread in Life magazine, with photographs by Mark Shaw, where she was attending to a textile buying trip in multiple locations in Asia.{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JU4EAAAAMBAJ |title=LIFE |date=1962-08-03 |publisher=Time, Inc |volume=53 |language=en |chapter=Businesslike Search For Style: The World Jet Shopper |issn=0024-3019 |issue=5}}

Her work shifted in the early 1960s towards fluorescent colors and more dramatic dress silhouettes; signaling an early change towards counterculture fashion. Her other interests included miniskirts and mini dresses, oversized sunglasses,{{Cite book |last=Sanders |first=Ed |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QTBhfe7SwyYC |title=Fug You: An Informal History of the Peace Eye Bookstore, the Fuck You Press, the Fugs, and Counterculture in the Lower East Side |date=2011-12-13 |publisher=Hachette Books |isbn=978-0-306-81888-2 |pages=232 |language=en}} paper dresses, "little girl dresses" (i.e., babydoll dresses) made with creative fabrics, artificially colored furs, mod fashion, mirrors and mirror balls, "Uncle Sam" themed clothes, and vinyl clothing. Her 1966 fashion show was held in her friend Jan Yoors artist loft in Manhattan, and featured black lights, fluorescent clothing, and a catwalk suspended above the audience; it was attended by Andy Warhol and the Factory, Edie Sedgwick, Halston, and others. Morse was named one of the "fashion revolutionaries" in New York by Women's Wear Daily in 1966, alongside Edie Sedgwick, Baby Jane Holzer, Pierre Cardin, Paco Rabanne, Rudi Gernreich, André Courrèges, Emanuel Ungaro, Yves Saint Laurent, and Mary Quant.{{Cite news |date=April 14, 1966 |title=Revolution In Fashion Reaction In New York: These Were The Revolutionaries |volume=112 |pages=4–5 |work=Women's Wear Daily |issue=74 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1564944345|id={{ProQuest|1564944345}} }} In 1967, Morse was working on designing clothing with kinetics (early electronic clothing) for the "psychedelic collection".

She was a costume designer for the John Chamberlain film The Secret Life of Hernando Cortez (1968), filmed in Mexico starring Ultra Violet and Taylor Mead.{{Cite web |title=Тайгер Морс |trans-title=Tiger Morse |url=https://ua.kinorium.com/name/1362536/ |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=Кіноріум |language=uk}}{{Cite news |last=Kennedy |first=Randy |date=2011-12-22 |title=John Chamberlain, Who Wrested Rough Magic From Scrap Metal, Dies at 84 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/arts/design/john-chamberlain-artist-of-auto-metal-dies-at-84.html |access-date=2023-02-25 |issn=0362-4331}}

Death and legacy

She moved to London towards the end of her life. Morse was a known amphetamine addict, and died on April 22, 1972, at age 40 from a drug overdose while visiting New York City. She had been married multiple times, and had one son, Henry Winston Moses.{{Cite news |date=2002-01-08 |title=Paid Notice: Deaths Moses, William A. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/08/classified/paid-notice-deaths-moses-william-a.html |access-date=2023-02-25 |issn=0362-4331}}

Her fashion work is in museum collections including at the Museum of the City of New York;{{Cite web |date=2017-12-11 |title=MOD New York: Fashion Takes a Trip |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mod-new-york-fashion-takes-a-trip_b_5a1c8cdfe4b09413e786ae3f |access-date=2023-02-26 |website=HuffPost |language=en}} and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.{{Cite web |title=Joan "Tiger" Morse |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/95301 |access-date=2023-02-26 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}} She is included in the historical archives at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History;{{Cite web |title=Film negative sheet of Tiger Morse |url=https://digitalcollections.briscoecenter.org/item/466804 |access-date=2023-02-26 |website=Briscoe Center Digital Collections}} and the Toronto Public Library Archive.{{Cite web |title=Joan - Tiger Morse |url=https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/objects/207681/joan--tiger-morse |access-date=2023-02-26 |website=Toronto Star Photograph Archive, Toronto Public Library Archive |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=New York's Tiger Morse Grew steadily Angrier, This is awful,' she said |url=https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/objects/207703/new-yorks-tiger-morse-grew-steadily-angrier-this-is-awful |access-date=2023-02-26 |website=Toronto Star Photograph Archive, Toronto Public Library Archives |language=en}}

Around 2013, the Warhol film featuring Morse, Tiger Morse (Reel 14 of ****) (1967) was restored and has been shown during screening events.{{Cite web |title=The Andy Warhol Film Project at "To Save and Project: The 11th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation" |url=https://whitney.org/events/warhol-film-project-at-mo-ma |access-date=2023-02-26 |website=Whitney Museum of American Art |language=en}} In 2015, the art exhibition "Tiger Morse by Mark Shaw: Jet-Set Style Quest 1962" curated by Alan Rosenberg with the Mark Shaw Photographic Archive, held at the Liz O’Brien Gallery in New York City.{{Cite web |date=2015-11-10 |title=Worldly Fashion Photography in the Glamorous 60's |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/worldly-fashion-photograp_b_8511396 |access-date=2023-02-26 |website=HuffPost |language=en}} In 2017–2018, her work was part of the group exhibition "Mod New York: Fashion Takes a Trip" at the Museum of the City of New York.