Stephen Burrows

Stephen Gerald Burrows was born on the fifteenth of September 1943 at Newark, New Jersey, the son of Octavia Pennington — a Newark Black domestic — and Stephen Gerald Burrows Sr. He was raised in the segregated Black community of post-Great-Migration Newark.

He was instructed in pattern-making and dressmaking by his maternal grandmother Beatrice Pennington Simmons across the principal early-1950s Newark Black-family household period — and completed the principal Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts in 1962.

He enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Technology at New York in 1964 — and completed the bachelor's degree in fashion design in 1966.

He was hired in 1966 at the principal Seventh Avenue New York fashion house of the white couturier Weber Originals as a junior designer — and in 1967 at the principal Allen Cole boutique at the principal New York East-Side commercial-boutique district.

He co-founded with the principal partner Roz Rubenstein the principal O Boutique at 415 East 9th Street at the East Village of New York in 1968 — and operated the principal O Boutique at the East 9th Street address from 1968 to 1970.

He was recruited in 1970 by the principal Henri Bendel department store at 712 Fifth Avenue at New York under the principal Bendel general manager Geraldine Stutz — and opened the principal Stephen Burrows World boutique on the principal Henri Bendel second floor in 1970. He operated the principal Stephen Burrows World boutique at Henri Bendel from 1970 to 1973.

He was selected as one of the five principal American designers shown at the principal Salon de la Couture at the Hôtel Crillon at Paris in November 1973 — at the principal Versailles fashion show fundraiser for the restoration of the Palace of Versailles. He was the only Black-American designer at the principal Versailles event alongside Anne Klein, Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, and Halston.

He founded the principal Stephen Burrows Inc. fashion house at New York in 1973 — and operated the principal Stephen Burrows Inc. fashion house from 1973 to 1982.

He was the principal pioneer of the principal matte-jersey Black-American couture tradition of the late 1960s and 1970s — including the principal lettuce-edge hemline of the principal early-1970s commercial matte-jersey couture period and the principal multi-colour-tone-block fashion of the principal disco-era commercial American couture period.

His principal Stephen Burrows Inc. clientele across the 1970s included Cher, Diana Ross, Iman, Pat Cleveland, Bianca Jagger, and the principal Studio 54 New York entertainment community of the period.

He was awarded the principal Coty American Fashion Critics Award in 1973, 1974, and 1977.

He died at New York on the seventh of March 2023 of natural causes, at seventy-nine.

He is honored here as the principal Black-American sportswear designer of the 1970s American matte-jersey couture tradition.