Thursday, January 9, 2014

New donation -- fashion design drawings!

Yesterday we received an amazing donation of fashion design drawings by local designer Richard Boczek!  There are two binders full of gorgeous drawings like this from the 1950s:


Each full color drawing is accompanied by a black and white sketch of a historical dress that was used as inspiration for the "modern" interpretation.  There are so many beautiful drawings, it was difficult to choose just a few to blog for now.

According to the donor, Richard Boczek and John Yunkes started a business in Canton called John-Richard Custom Gown Salon in 1956.  They were both active in the Canton Players Guild in the costume design department as well.  In the 1970s John and Richard went to work for Higbee's in Canton, Akron, and Cleveland.

The donation also included three dresses they designed.  Two have their label inside.  They aren't as glamorous as the examples in the drawings!  The dresses are pretty, but they were created with the average woman in mind.  

The collection contains a wealth of newspaper clippings about the men and their designs as well.  As we go through the papers, we will learn more about these men and their fantastic designs.

For now, here are some more examples from Richard's portfolio:








1 comment:

church said...

Ha! Who knew??? Wonderful to see. Thanks for sharing!