Vera Maxwell

Education

She attended Leonia High School in Leonia, New Jersey and studied ballet in New New York

Career

She was the first American designer to make clothes with Ultrasuede material. Born to Viennese parents, she traveled to Europe with them as a child and lived for a while in Vienna. They divorced in 1937.

After years of designing for other manufacturers, she founded her own company, Vera Maxwell Originals, in 1947.

Her heyday was in the 1950s. By 1960 her clothes were being sold in 700 stores around the country, but during that decade with its huge upheavals her classic style waned and she "decided to lie fallow for a while".

She resurfaced in 1970 with a collection that was introduced at B. Altman. Until her retirement in 1985 she continued to turn out the tasteful classic suits, coats and dresses that her loyal customers would wear for years.

She died on January 15, 1995, in Rincon, Puerto Rico, aged 93, following a brief illness.

Achievements

• She won the Coty American Fashion Critics" Award in 1953, the Neiman Marcus Award in 1955 and was honored in 1970 with a retrospective exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Maxwell became known as a designer in the 1930s and became famous for her innovative designs.