WRITTEN BY ZOE DE LA PLANA
EDITED BY MICHELANGELO LIA
NARRATED BY PAUL G ROBERTS
Her name might conjure up flashes of hot pink and sickly sweet dresses, but Betsey Johnson is more than meets the eye. Betsey Johnson’s influence on the fashion world is immeasurable, having set the trends of the 60s all the way to the 2000s. While designers would traditionally take a bow at the end of the show, Betsey Johnson would cartwheel down the runway and end in the splits - a move that defined her challenging of the status quo.
Born in 1942 in small-town Connecticut, Johnson grew up with an avid passion for drawing, dance and gymnastics. She was a cheerleader in high school, and loved the costume aspect of these activities. Having been surrounded by sewing, she learnt how to sew herself, and eventually pursued these interests in college.
Her career was launched by sheer luck - in 1964, she won a competition to be the college student guest editor of renowned women’s magazine, Mademoiselle, a position previously held by the likes of Sylvia Plath and Joan Didion. Her time at Mademoiselle showed the team that she was a force to be reckoned with, so much so that her bubbly personality landed Johnson a job at the magazine’s art department, where she drew illustrations, handled layouts and took photographs. At work, she quickly became known for her sweaters, hand-crocheted by Betsey herself, which caught the eye of her colleagues. She began to take orders for her colleagues and sold the sweaters for 20 dollars each - the sweaters eventually appeared into the shopping sections of the magazines and they quickly became a hot commodity.
As her time at Mademoiselle passed, it was clear that Betsey was too big of a personality to be held back. In New York City, a new boutique had just opened on Madison Avenue, called Paraphernalia. It was intended to emulate the mod sensibilities of the British youth, and was looking to feature up-and-coming designers to showcase. It was Edie Locke, then-editor of Mademoiselle, who put forward Betsey Johnson’s name, and soon enough, Johnson received a workroom in the famed boutique. Betsey Johnson’s designs for Paraphernalia combined the zany with the familiar, often using unique fabrics with tried-and-tested silhouettes. Some of her signature pieces during this time include a lamé fishnet shift dress, her famous nylon microskirts, and a sparkling silver motorcycle jacket. Johnson’s experimentation with different textiles stems from her exposure to unique fabrics in the art department at Mademoiselle. Paraphernalia’s innovative use of fabrics would come to define the boutique - making clothes that “you'd spray with Windex, rather than dry-clean,” as Betsey Johnson once said.
Her designs were also radical in concept: she designed a clear vinyl dress, with do-it-yourself stickers to customise as you please, as well as the famous “noise” dress, a jersey A-line piece with metal grommets at the hem of the dress. Despite the boutique showcasing several designers, the Betsey Johnson name became synonymous with Paraphernalia, with the boutique even showing her name on their advertisements.
Johnson and her designs are often cited as one of key figures of the Youthquake, the 1960s social movement. A term coined by then-editor of Vogue, Diana Vreeland, it referred to youth taking control of the mass market and challenging the status quo of the previous generation. In the fashion world, it meant shifting the power away from the dominant couture houses, with young people wanting to partake in the new trends.