Cynthia Rowley, the 2025 CFDA Eleanor Lambert Founders Award Honoree, has successfully packaged fashions joie de vivre for four decades and counting.<\/p>\n
The Chicago natives fashion fame began serendipitously in the early 1980s when her own self-designed outfit caught the eye of a Marshall Field\u2019s department store buyer during a subway ride. The chance encounter sparked her first collection. Rowley would later tell WWD, \u201cI didn\u2019t even know what a [fashion] line was, back then.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her brand\u2019s evolution was captured over four decades in WWD\u2019s coverage, including in its reporting of the Chicago fashion market. One of Rowley\u2019s first showings was with the Chicago 21, a collective of 21 young designers who banded together in 1982 to show the industry they were a national fashion force. She moved to New York a year later. Her affordable yet contemporary fashion embraced a modern playfulness, making her a Seventh Avenue favorite.<\/p>\n
By the 2000s, the brand began leaning into lifestyle licensing, tapping into every fashion category\u2014including baby gear\u2014and helped revolutionize the pop-up shop experience, delighting old and new fans around the globe. Rowley\u2019s signature \u201cfun\u201d element remains uniquely hers\u2014few designers could roller skate or ride a bicycle down a runway to applause.<\/p>\n