
Fashion and fiber arts are two locations in which gals have extensive excelled: Even at a time when businesswomen were being nearly unheard of, “vogue was kind of this 1 small sliver that [people] were keen to form of see girls succeed in,” per Clara Berg, style curator and historian at the Museum of Historical past and Marketplace.
But that isn’t going to suggest that their endeavours have been adequately identified. “There has historically been a division in the arts: high-quality arts, and attractive arts,” says National Nordic Museum curator Leslie Anderson. Women of all ages often lacked access to the schooling important to take part in high-quality arts, although the arts that have been available to them, like weaving, were observed as a lesser pursuit.
Yet (sorry)…the ladies of the Pacific Northwest persisted. In honor of Women’s History Thirty day period, in this article are eight area girls who manufactured a title for themselves in trend and textiles—and proved that they’re really worth celebrating.
Helen Igoe: Seattle’s Initially Boutique Owner
When perfectly-identified socialite and Seattle office retailer customer Helen Igoe opened her possess store on 2nd Avenue in 1910, it speedily grew to become “the Mecca of females who crave that ‘something’ which will make a girl nicely dressed as an alternative of just dressed,” for every a 1920 Seattle Daily Periods posting that credits Igoe with bringing the 1st French-style boutique to our city’s cobbled streets.
“‘Helen Igoe’ in Seattle is synonymous with great taste,” for each the Periods, in massive aspect thanks to her proximity to the Parisian trend scene. Berg claims Igoe normally took months-extensive journeys by aircraft, teach, and steamship to provide the newest items back again home to the Helen Igoe Shop for Girls. “No issue what journal writers may possibly say to the contrary,” Igoe instructed the Occasions, “America will normally go to Paris for her loveliest creations.”


Margaret Olofsson Bergman: Moveable Loom Powerhouse
When requested by the Bremerton Journal how she very first realized to weave, Swedish immigrant Margaret Olofsson Bergman claimed, “I consider I often realized how, even if I got spanked for trying.” Despite her mother’s insistence that the youthful woman stay absent from the loom—and her incapacity to access the pedals—Bergman taught herself by weaving in magic formula and unraveling her perform ahead of her mother returned from milking cows.
Bergman went on to patent two portable folding loom types that enabled her to train her craft at her Washington weaving college, all through the Pacific Northwest, and all over the place, fostering a renewed desire in weaving and the commence of a community marketplace, according to praise from many region newspapers. “She left an indelible mark on the weaving neighborhood,” Anderson says. Her elaborate styles can nevertheless be uncovered in weaving books these days.


Dorothy Cabot Ideal: Womenswear Forebear
When Boston-born Dorothy Cabot Very best opened Best’s Apparel on 3rd Avenue in June 1925 and stocked it with finds from shopping for journeys to the East Coast, she promptly cemented her part as a tastemaker: 1 1933 Seattle Day-to-day Situations posting called Best’s finds “as new as tomorrow, as refreshing as a spring early morning, for they all arrived direct from New York Town.”
When Best died in August 1958, Best’s Attire shut for a working day in her memory—but also probably mainly because her partner and cofounder, Ivan, was dropped without her discerning eye. He expended the ensuing decades convincing a neighboring shoe shop to soak up his womenswear corporation. In 1963, Nordstrom, Inc. acquired Best’s Clothing. “Had they not produced that leap by obtaining Best’s,” Berg says, “they would not be where they are.”


Bernice Caverly: Century 21 Expo Qualified
Trend Team of Seattle president Bernice Caverly’s vocation by yourself qualifies her as an influential character in Seattle fashion—she spent 30 decades as a merchandiser at division retailer Frederick and Nelson until her retirement in 1966. But potentially her most memorable contribution was to the 1962 World’s Good vogue demonstrates, held 4 situations everyday all-around a perfumed pool for the fair’s complete 6-thirty day period period.
“Women like her had been going to be definitely invested in showing Seattle off and demonstrating that Seattle was modern,” Berg says. Caverly represented our city nicely, coming up with the fair’s Century 21–inspired blue coloration plan that started off a national trend—mirrored by, if not right influencing, the blue pinstripe accommodate worn to the fair by President John F. Kennedy himself.


Olive J. Smith: Department Retailer Dynamo
Olive J. Smith’s career serves as a who’s who of Washington manner giants: the New York fashion faculty graduate and longtime Manner Group member worked as a customer for Rhodes Division Retail store, the Crescent in Spokane, the Bon Marche, and Nordstrom, supporting remodel the company from a shoe retailer into the women’s garments sector chief we know it as now.
Mary Peters and Adeline Lorenzetto: Legacy Weavers
Coastline Salish weaving was practically dropped to colonization in the 1st parts of the twentieth century. But thanks to the perform of Stó:lō artist Mary Peters, then one of the couple remaining girls who had realized Salish weaving traditions straight, and Shxw’ōwhámél weaver Adeline Lorenzetto, who researched previous blankets and styles to relearn conventional techniques, the artwork type was revived in the late 1960s.
The two females played instrumental roles in founding the Salish Weaving Guild in 1971. However the guild has given that dissolved, the art form remains alive nowadays by way of groups like Salish Weave.


Henrietta Rate: Millinery Drive
Renowned Seattle milliner and entrepreneur Henrietta Swan Rate designed and bought custom made hats out of her Madison Valley shop, Henrietta Hats and Components, for around a few a long time beginning in the 1980s. Hers was an art form deeply intertwined with Black church customs, previous Washington point out representative Dawn Mason told The Seattle Periods in a 2000 posting about Price’s function. “Henrietta has served keep the tradition going.”
As not too long ago as 2019, Value spoke at a Sunday Hat Parade held by MOHAI and the Black Heritage Modern society of Washington Point out, demonstrating the transformative electric power of a brim adjustment or an angled headpiece. “Wear a hat,” Rate told The Seattle Instances in 2004, “and they will hardly ever ignore you.”
Composite image images: Wirestock Creators / Shutterstock.com (track record), Paul Christian Gordon / Alamy Inventory Picture (Rate), Courtesy Nordic Museum (Bergman), MOHAI (costume, Best’s building, shoe)
