Eyewear Designs LTD - Bill Blass

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Bill Blass - The Man

Bill Blass was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana on June 22, 1922. At the age of seventeen he came to New York and worked as a sketcher and designer. After serving three and one-half years in the U.S. Army, during World War II, he resumed his career with various designing jobs. By 1970 he started Bill Blass Ltd..

As principal of Bill Blass, Ltd.. and one of the most widely acclaimed American designers, he licenses his name to forty-one domestic licensees and fifty-six worldwide licensees. The licensed products range from: menswear, women's sportswear and dresses, jeans, accessories, home furnishings, jewelry, fragrances and eyewear.

Renown for his classic American designs, Bill Blass has won numerous awards. He is a three time winner of the prestigious Coty American Fashion Critics Award, Gentlemen's Quarterly (GQ) "Manstyle" award, the Cutty Sark Hall of Fame Award for menswear, and many other awards from retailers such as Neiman-Marcus, and I. Magnin. In 1987, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Council of Fashion Designers.

Bill Blass holds two Honorary Doctorate degrees. One is from the Rhode Island School of Design (1977), as well as a degree in Humane Letters from Indiana University (1984). Also in 1984, Bill Blass received the "New Yorker for New York" Award from the Citizen's Committee for New York City. Blass was President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America from 1979-1981 and is currently a member of both its Executive Committee and Board of Directors. In 1987, Ronald Reagan appointed Bill Blass to the President's Arts and Humanities Committee. Since 1986, he has served on the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library and in January 1994, the Bill Blass Public Reading Room of the Library was dedicated to commemorate Mr. Blass' $10,000,000 donation.

His client list includes many well-known figures in the areas of industry, politics, society and the arts. The list includes well-known persons such as: Mrs. George Bush, Mrs. Ronald Reagan, Mrs. William Buckley, Mrs. Averill Harriman, Mrs. Henry Kissinger, Ms. Mary Tyler Moore and Ms. Barbara Walters.