Betsey Johnson's Fashion Career
Betsey Johnson was born on August 10, 1942, in Wethersfield, Connecticut. She grew up loving dance and drawing, which eventually led her to the fashion industry. The dresses and costumes for dance as a child spurred her creative side, and she often spent hours drawing dresses for dance. It was then that she realized that she could make the drawings a reality, into the dresses of her dreams. After graduating High School, Betsey attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and then transferred for the rest of her college career to Syracuse University. Throughout college, she continued to follow her love of clothing and fashion, and had her first big break winning Mademoiselle magazine’s “Guest Editors Contest.” Betsy made a name for herself for being
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Her original clientele of bubbly young teens from the 1960’s grew up and didn’t want her wild patterns and bright designs anymore. This created problems for her business, and had to resort to designing maternity clothes for a while in the mid 70’s. She had to alter her plan for designing clothes for bubbly young women in the Youthquake movement when the fashion scene shifted, and no longer catered to her original designs. She got by throughout these years, but eventually was able to go back to her first love, designing edgy and bright clothing, with the start of the punk movement in 1978. The punk movement allowed her to return to prominence, and she started her own company in 1978 under the Betsey Johnson label. The company has steadily grown since it’s start, and now has 65 stores worldwide. I learned how Betsey Johnson was unafraid to pioneer in a new era with the Youthquake movement, and always followed her love of bubbly punk clothing. This inspires me because though she had some problems in the mid 70’s she persevered and always found her way back to designing crazy colors and designs. Her perseverance and determination to design what she wanted to, not what the industry wanted to, inspires me to follow my dreams, not those others set out for
Her original clientele of bubbly young teens from the 1960’s grew up and didn’t want her wild patterns and bright designs anymore. This created problems for her business, and had to resort to designing maternity clothes for a while in the mid 70’s. She had to alter her plan for designing clothes for bubbly young women in the Youthquake movement when the fashion scene shifted, and no longer catered to her original designs. She got by throughout these years, but eventually was able to go back to her first love, designing edgy and bright clothing, with the start of the punk movement in 1978. The punk movement allowed her to return to prominence, and she started her own company in 1978 under the Betsey Johnson label. The company has steadily grown since it’s start, and now has 65 stores worldwide. I learned how Betsey Johnson was unafraid to pioneer in a new era with the Youthquake movement, and always followed her love of bubbly punk clothing. This inspires me because though she had some problems in the mid 70’s she persevered and always found her way back to designing crazy colors and designs. Her perseverance and determination to design what she wanted to, not what the industry wanted to, inspires me to follow my dreams, not those others set out for