Vera Maxwell

Vera Huppe Maxwell was born on April 22, 1901, in The Bronx, New York, and spent part of her childhood in Austria before returning to the United States, where she attended Leonia High School in Leonia, New Jersey. She trained in ballet in New York City and went on to perform with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet beginning in 1919. Her stage career extended beyond the opera house: Maxwell appeared on Broadway between 1908 and 1917, with credits including the revue Ziegfeld Follies of 1911, the musical The Century Girl, the revue Miss 1917, Dance and Grow Thin, and the Ziegfeld Follies of 1918. She danced with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet until 1924, when her marriage to financier Raymond J. Maxwell brought that chapter of her career to a close. The couple had one child and divorced in 1937. Maxwell married architect Carlisle H. Johnson in 1938; that marriage ended in 1945.

In the late 1920s, Maxwell transitioned into the fashion industry, taking work as a model at B. Altman and other New York City department stores. She noted that the timing aligned naturally with her performance schedule, as the opera season concluded in May just as Seventh Avenue fashion houses were opening their collections. Around 1929 she began sketching designs for the houses where she modeled, marking the beginning of her design career. In 1935 she released what she called a "weekend wardrobe," a coordinated grouping of two jackets, two skirts, and a pair of trousers. Inspired by Albert Einstein, one jacket was collarless with four patch pockets rendered in tweed and gray flannel, designed to mix and match with a short pleated flannel tennis skirt, a longer tweed skirt, and a pair of flannel cuffed trousers. The New York Times revisited the ensemble in 1999, noting it remained wearable decades after its introduction.

During the 1940s, Maxwell designed a cotton coverall uniform for war workers at the Sperry Gyroscope Corporation. The garment, associated with the "Rosie the Riveter" image, received an excellence rating from the United States government and is considered a forerunner of the modern jumpsuit. After years of designing for other manufacturers, Maxwell founded her own label, Vera Maxwell Originals, in 1947. Her debut collection centered on sportswear, including after-ski clothes, tennis outfits, and riding apparel. Maxwell was among a group of American designers — alongside Claire McCardell, Clare Potter, Carolyn Schnurer, and Tina Leser — who pursued a more relaxed, distinctly American approach to clothing. She gave her designs characteristically American names, such as "Daniel Boone" for Western wear, and by the 1950s had expanded her range to include evening wear.

Maxwell was the first American designer to work with Ultrasuede and the synthetic fabric Arnel. An early bestseller constructed from Arnel was a wrap blouse paired with a permanently pleated skirt, conceived with travelers in mind. She consistently produced her designs in sizes up to 18 or 20 at a time when most designers did not create above a size 8, and her use of wrap-and-tie closures and supple fabrics accommodated a range of body types. Maxwell won the Coty Award in 1953. In 1955, she and Grace Kelly both received Neiman Marcus Fashion Awards, and Maxwell subsequently made frequent visits to the Royal Family in Monaco. Her clients included First Ladies Pat Nixon and Rosalynn Carter, as well as performers Martha Graham and Lillian Gish. By 1960, her clothing was carried in 700 stores across the country.

The 1960s brought a decline in Maxwell's commercial prominence as fashion attention shifted toward British designers. Following an unsuccessful 1964 collection, she stepped away from the industry, returning in 1970 with a new collection launched at B. Altman. That same year she was honored with a retrospective at the Smithsonian Institution, and in 1980 the Museum of the City of New York mounted an exhibit of her work. In 1975 she introduced the "speed suit," a pull-on dress with a stretch top and no zippers, buttons, snaps, or ties, inspired by the West German Olympic uniform and initially priced between $99 and $199. Maxwell retired in 1985 and closed her company, then returned briefly in 1986 to produce one final collection for Peter Lynne before permanently leaving the industry.

Maxwell spent her last years with her son and daughter-in-law, dividing her time between Gilgo Beach, Long Island, and Rincon, Puerto Rico, having lived in Manhattan until three years before her death. She died on January 15, 1995, at the age of 93. Her designs are held in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Cooper Hewitt, and the Museum of the City of New York.