1903-
Fashion Designer

Quintessential New York Designer.

Adele Simpson exemplified the finest in American fashion design for nearly five decades, turning out collections of flattering, tasteful, and functional clothing for women. She was best known for her matching ensembles of coats and dresses. She served her apprenticeship in a New York ready-to-wear house and studied at the Pratt Institute of Design in Brooklyn before becoming a top-paid designer in the 1920s. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s she had her own label as designer for Mary Lee Fashions. In 1949 she established her own firm.

Natural-Born Talent.

The youngest of five daughters, Simpson became interested in sewing at an early age, designing and making the outfits she and her sisters wore to school. After graduating from the Pratt Institute of Design, she became the head designer of a New York ready-to-wear clothes house at age nineteen. After she...