Carol Stanley

Alexa Griffith Winton

By the late 1940s, Liebes was working extensively on commercial collaborations, creating Liebes-designed products at a range of accessible price points. In addition to creating her home goods–focused work for Goodall Fabrics and the United Wallpaper Liebes Weaves line of textured wallpaper, in 1949 she also entered the fashion accessories market through her collaboration with Carol Stanley, a brand of handkerchiefs and scarves produced by the New York manufacturer Herzman Incorporated. As with Betty Crocker and other midcentury brands built around a woman’s name and targeted toward women consumers, there was no person named Carol Stanley behind the brand.  

The Dorothy Liebes for Carol Stanley collaboration was announced in June 1949, and many of the items featured both the Carol Stanley brand label and a separate Dorothy Liebes for Carol Stanley tag. The full line included silk scarves in a range of printed patterns sourced by Liebes, along with a line of woven stoles and scarves that, though power-loomed, featured the signature Liebes elements of texture, saturated colors, and a liberal use of metallic yarns. The collaboration was promoted in national magazines, including the New Yorker, which featured an advertisement with a photograph of a model in Dorothy Liebes’s studio, seated in front of her famous carved ram’s head loom on a large square cushion covered in unmistakably Liebes fabric. The loom itself is strewn with stoles and scarves. Advertising copy described these “loomed” stoles as having “glowing, textural colors.” The canny description of the stoles as “loomed” alluded to the handwoven textiles for which Liebes was famous, without promising handwoven goods (Fig. 1). 

An undated press release in the 1949 Dorothy Liebes Studio pressbook announced the partnership between Liebes and Carol Stanley and the opening of a new Carol Stanley showroom. Liebes is credited with designing this showroom along with celebrated designers Tom Lee and Ira Paris. [1] The copy celebrates Liebes’s exclusive contributions to the Carol Stanley line, asserting, “One of our most important fall stories centers around the Dorothy Liebes scarves, which we are presenting officially for the first time this season. We believe that these scarves, designed by one of the world’s greatest creative weavers, fill an important place in the fashion picture, and we are proud to be the first to present this exclusive story, which is OURS ALONE” (Figs. 2–3). [2] 

The stoles were offered in several different styles and lengths. There were ascots, stoles in two lengths, and a 36-inch self-fringed square model described as “a wonderful country or outdoor scarf.” In addition to celebrating wool yarns, the various designs also nodded to Liebes’s love of weaving with unusual materials; she incorporated various decorative elements, including pompoms, sequins, and even artificial flowers.  

Although documentation on this partnership is scarce, indications suggest that it lasted through the early to mid-1950s, at which point Liebes was also working with American designers Bonnie Cashin and Clare Potter, providing custom-designed fabrics for their clothing.  

NOTES


[1] Carol Stanley press release. Series 8, Box 28, Folder 4, Scrapbook 1949, Dorothy Liebes Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

[2] Advertisement for Dorothy Liebes stoles for Carol Stanley. Series 8, box 28, folder 4, Scrapbook 1949, Dorothy Liebes Papers. 

 

 

A black-and-white photograph of a room featuring a young woman with light skin and dark hair, pulled back. She is seated in front of a large wooden loom with carved ram’s heads on the beams. She is wearing slim trousers and buckled shoes. She has a long, textured stole around her shoulders and is seated on a large, square, textured pillow. Additional stoles are strewn across the loom behind her.

Fig. 1 Model in the Dorothy Liebes Studio in front of Liebes’s Ram’s Head loom, seated on a Liebes cushion and wearing a Dorothy Liebes for Carol Stanley woven shawl, as photographed for Carol Stanley, 1948; Dorothy Liebes Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Dorothy Liebes for Carol Stanley powerloomed self-fringed stole in black, green, and red wool with gold accents throughout.

Fig. 2 Dorothy Liebes for Carol Stanley powerloomed self-fringed stole in black, green, and red wool with gold accents throughout; Private collection; Photo by Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

Dorothy Liebes for Carol Stanley powerloomed stole in black, green, and red wool with gold accents throughout and tassels on each end.

Fig. 3 Dorothy Liebes for Carol Stanley powerloomed stole in black, green, and red wool with gold accents throughout and tassels on each end; Private collection; Photo by Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

Alexa Griffith Winton

Alexa Griffith Winton is a design historian and educator. She is currently Manager, Content + Curriculum at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. She has researched and published on the work of Dorothy Liebes for over ten years. Griffith’s work has been published in scholarly and popular publications, including the Journal of Design History, Dwell, Journal of the Archives of American Art, and the Journal of Modern Craft. She co-edited A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes (Cooper Hewitt and Yale University Press, 2023) with Susan Brown. She has received research grants from the Graham Foundation, the New York State Council for the Arts, Center for Craft, Nordic Culture Point, and the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation.