Geoffrey Beene
2022 Posthumous Inductee

​Acclaimed New York fashion designer Geoffrey Beene was born in Haynesville in 1924 to a family of doctors.  He pursued a medical career, himself, at Tulane University but dropped out after three years and moved to Los Angeles where he began studying fashion design.  He then moved to New York and Paris to further his studies before returning to New York in 1949.  There, he worked for a couple of Seventh Avenue design houses before founding his own in 1963.
 
Beene was widely recognized for his artistic and technical skills and for creating simple, comfortable, and dressy women’s wear.  But he also lent his name to eyewear, jewelry, luggage, and his well-known men’s cologne, Grey Flannel. 
 
Over the course of his lengthy design career, Beene received countless awards including 8 Coty Awards – the most ever awarded to any one designer.  In honor of his fashion legacy, the Council of Fashion Designers of America created the annual Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984.

Geoffrey Beene passed away in 2004.
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