Ceil Chapman

Ceil Chapman

Source: Vintage Fashion Designer Spotlight: Ceil Chapman

Ceil Chapman (1912-1979) was an American fashion designer based in New York City who created glamorous evening gowns and party dresses that sold at a relatively affordable price in the 1940s to mid-1960s.

Born Cecilia Mitchell in Staten Island, New York, she had no formal design training but worked as a saleswoman in a dress shop. A short-lived venture with Gloria Vanderbilt called “Her Ladyship Gowns” failed in 1940, after which she went into business with her husband, Samuel Chapman, who had previously been a dress salesman, as the designer for his dress manufacturing company.

Ceil Chapman ad for Western Union Telegram

Chapman became well-known for dressing actresses and movie stars. She created Elizabeth Taylor's first wedding dress in 1950 and was a favorite designer of Marilyn Monroe. She also engaged in a great deal of self-promotion, appearing in magazine advertisements, including for Western Union Telegraph, and loaning dresses for ad campaigns, including for Cadillac.

Chapman’s designs tended to emphasize the female form, with dramatic décolletages, elaborately draped bodices, slim waistlines, and either very full or very formfitting skirts. She often worked with silk, taffeta, jersey, and chiffon and tended to stick with her signature styles rather than experimenting broadly. Despite their expensive-looking details, her dresses sold in department stores and boutiques for only $50 to $300, which was moderately priced for fancy party clothes at the time.

She and Samuel Chapman divorced in 1951, after which she married Tom Rogers, though she and her ex-husband remained business partners until the business dissolved in 1965. That year she began working for Samuel Winston, still creating glamorous gowns under the "Ceil Chapman for Miss Winston" label. She retired, then briefly returned to work in 1969, though it did not go well, as the miniskirts and other fashions of that era were becoming less compatible with her brand of sophistication and glamour. She died in 1979, just a few days after her husband.