Featuring more than 50 garments made between the 1920s and 1960s, as well as original sketches and illustrations, Elizabeth Hawes: Radical American Fashion explores the life and fashions of American clothing designer Elizabeth Hawes (1903–1971). A groundbreaking and visionary designer, Hawes wrote nine books and predicted things in the fashion world that would not come to pass until the 1960s and beyond. She showcased comfort for women and for men, was captivated by gender-fluid clothing, and foresaw the future when paper dresses would come into fashion and clothing would be poured into molds.

Hawes opened her salon in New York in 1928 when only one other couturier was working in the United States (Jesse Franklin Turner).  After closing her atelier in 1940, Hawes went on to work in a surprising variety of positions, including as a writer for the left-leaning PM magazine, a worker in an airplane engine factory during WWII, and a union organizer for the UAW. She was even blacklisted by the FBI at one point.

In Hawes’s first book, titled Fashion Is Spinach, she railed against American women lusting after French labels. Hawes traveled to Paris to learn the trade but felt she could design for American women on American soil. Hawes dabbled in ready-to-wear saying, “The minute I saw that hundreds of women could have Hawes clothes, I wanted thousands to wear them.” She felt in a democratic country, like the United States, clothing should be decided by the needs of the middle class.

The exhibition also includes pieces created by Hawes’s American contemporaries—including Bonnie Cashin, Rudi Gernreich, Claire McCardell, and Clare Potter—placing Hawes’s work within the context of mid-twentieth century American fashion design.

See Elizabeth Hawes’s fashions now! Elizabeth Hawes: Radical American Fashion is on view through August 2, 2026. Admission is free. Please post to social using hashtag #ElizabethHawes.

This post was adapted from an article originally published in 1881 Member Magazine. Become a member of the Cincinnati Art Museum to receive this exclusive triannual publication.