STAVROPOULOS
- Lady Bird Johnson
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
- Maria Callas
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Sophia Loren
- Queen Frederica of Greece
- Queen Anne-Marie
- Shirley MacLaine
- Evangeline Gouletas-Carey
- Eydie Gormé
- Anna Moffo
- Grace Bumbry
- Yveta Graff
- Liza Minnelli
- Cicely Tyson
- Barbra Streisand
- Renata Tebaldi
- Arlene Dahl
- Loretta Swit
- Julia Meade
- Hildegarde
- Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia
- Doris Lilly
Athens · New York
Chiffon that moves
like marble never could.
George Stavropoulos took his line from ancient Greek statuary and draped it in chiffon. For thirty years every gown was cut, draped and finished in his own atelier on West 57th Street.
No pieces match that search.
Photographs of pieces at the Metropolitan Museum of Art are shown courtesy of the museum. The drawn drapes stand in for pieces we don't have photographs of yet. Every piece listed is a real Stavropoulos garment; tap one for its details and where it is held.
History
From Tripoli
to 57th Street.
The seventh of ten children, a self-taught draper, and a designer who turned down Christian Dior.
George Peter Stavropoulos
George Peter Stavropoulos (1920–1990) was born in Tripolis, Greece, the seventh of ten children. With no formal training, he taught himself to cut and drape, starting out sweeping a tailor's shop and designing costumes for the theater. In 1949 he opened his couture salon, Nikis 13, in Athens, and within months he was the city's leading couturier, dressing Queen Frederica of Greece. When Christian Dior invited him to work in Paris, he said no.
In 1961 he followed his American wife, Nancy, to New York and started over, cutting dresses on his bed. By 1965 his chiffon gowns filled windows along Fifth Avenue, and his atelier at 16 West 57th Street was dressing first ladies, royalty, opera singers and film stars. He draped every design himself, directly in the fabric, and ran the house until his death in 1990. More than a hundred of his gowns are now held in museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“The dress is the frame, not the picture. You should see the woman first, not the dress.”
Timeline
- 1920
Born in Tripolis, Greece
George Peter Stavropoulos was born on January 22 in Tripolis, in the Peloponnese, the seventh of ten children of Peter Dmitri Stavropoulos and Dmitra Paraskeveopoulos. He was the artistic one in the family, and once made a ball gown for a sister out of their grandmother's old dress.
- 1940s
The tailor's shop and the theater
The Depression and the war took the family's fortune. George's first job was sweeping a tailor's shop. He studied costume in books and museums, and his first professional work was theatrical costume, including a production of the ballet Giselle.
- 1949
Nikis 13
He opened a couture salon called Nikis 13, near Constitution Square in Athens. He worked beside his seamstresses day and night, commissioned his own woven fabrics, and within three months was the city's leading couturier. Queen Frederica of Greece became a client.
- 1952
Declining Dior
On his fabric-buying trips to Paris he met Christian Dior, who invited him to work in his atelier. He said no, and he refused to copy Paris models in his own salon.
- 1960
Marriage to Nancy Angelakos
He met Nancy Angelakos, a Greek-American working for the U.S. Embassy, in 1957 and proposed within a week. She made him wait three years. They married in Greece on October 31, 1960, and she insisted they build their life in America.
- 1961
Starting over in New York
He closed Nikis 13 and began again, cutting dresses on his bed and sewing by hand. On the day his 25-piece debut collection was finished, all of it was stolen. He made every piece again and showed in November. The press loved it, but store buyers called it "too custom."
- 1963
Bonwit's to Bendel's
Mildred Custin of Bonwit Teller placed a large order, and Henry Bendel and Stanley Korshak followed. By 1965 his gowns filled windows along Fifth Avenue, and he moved to a larger atelier at 16 West 57th Street, where he stayed for the rest of his career.
- 1965
A Greek name to drop
The New York Times profiled him that July. His son Peter was born the same year and went to his first fashion show at five months old. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Maria Callas and Shirley MacLaine were now clients.
- 1966
Dressing the First Lady
Lady Bird Johnson wore his gowns to the openings of the new Metropolitan Opera House and the San Francisco Opera, a week apart. For White House fittings he took the Metroliner to Washington and walked across the lawn with her dresses over his shoulder. "I created her look," he said.
- 1969
Goddess pants
After seamless trousers in 1968 came loose, featherweight chiffon "goddess pants." In the same years he showed the Calyptra wrap, fitted on one side and a cape on the other, and short tunics modeled on the uniform of the Evzone guards.
- 1976
The Martha Award
Martha Phillips, whose Park Avenue shop called itself his number one client, gave him her Martha Award for outstanding achievement. He also won the REX Award three times.
- 1981
Inaugurations and weddings
By his own count, 400 guests at President Reagan's inaugural balls wore his chiffon. That spring he designed the wedding gown and the whole wedding party for Evangeline Gouletas's marriage to New York Governor Hugh Carey.
- 1982
"His best collection ever"
That was the verdict of Stella Blum, curator of costume at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was his twentieth year in America. He marked it with dinner at La Grenouille with Nancy and his workroom.
- 1990
A life's work
He ran the house until shortly before his death on December 8. The company closed in January 1991, because without him the line could not go on. Some of his clients had bought from his first New York collection and stayed with him to the last.
- 1991
The archive goes to Kent State
Kent State University Museum received more than 100 garments, 14 sketchbooks from 1979 to his final spring 1991 collection, and runway photography from 1968 to 1991.
- 2004
A scholarship in his name
Kent State University's School of Fashion established the George Stavropoulos Endowed Scholarship for promising design students.
- 2010
Stavropoulos at Kent State
Kent State University Museum opened a retrospective of 49 gowns made between 1961 and 1991, on what would have been his 90th birthday.
- 2022
ΜΟΔΑ is Fashion
The Fashion Institute of Technology included a dress from the 1969–70 collection in an exhibition on Greek fashion.
A new chapter
The house returns to the family.
George Stavropoulos, grandson of the designer and son of Peter, is bringing the house back. He carries his grandfather's name and grew up with the stories of Nikis 13, the 57th Street atelier and the runway shows his father photographed.
His aim is to honor what made the gowns last and built his grandfather's legacy: real fabric draped by hand, color built in layers of chiffon, and dresses a woman can move in. He is starting by gathering the archive, the photographs his family kept, and the pieces that live on in museums and in clients' closets.
He believes fashion is the least understood art form, and that its purpose is to help the wearer express themselves in their own way.
How he worked
Draped in the real fabric
Collections began as small sketches in a card-sized Hermès agenda, drawn at home while opera played. At the atelier he draped each design himself on a size 8 form, directly in chiffon rather than muslin. Some gowns used 24 yards of fabric.
Floating chiffon
Free panels joined the dress only at the neckline or waist, so the gown moved around the wearer. Six to eight layers in different colors made a shade no single dye could, sheer where it should be and opaque where it needed to be, without a slip.
Made entirely in-house
Only his cutter, Nicky Angelo, made patterns for sizing. Each design ran to just three to fifty pieces, all sewn at 57th Street, and in the late 1980s gowns sold for $2,000 to $7,000.
Fiercely independent
He tore up a fragrance deal and a licensing deal rather than give up artistic control. He never hired a publicist, never gave dresses away for exposure, and stayed out of the CFDA.
Room to move
Coco Chanel told him in 1950 that a woman has to live in her clothes. He never forgot it. “I don't want clothes to be tight,” he said. “A woman must be able to move around in a dress.”
A show twice a year
Each spring and fall he showed about one hundred designs at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue. Nancy poured champagne, a Greek band played, and he met every client after the show.
The family
George and Nancy
At parties they split up: Nancy talked to the men and George to the women. At home he drew while she did the Times crossword. He kept the black alpaca suit from their wedding for 28 years, because, he said, it was the day that changed his life.
George and Peter
He taught his son to cut, drape and sew, and made him a silver lamé Tin Man costume for a third-grade Wizard of Oz. As a teenager Peter photographed the runway shows and ran the music.
The next generation
The George Stavropoulos Endowed Scholarship ↗
Awarded to a full-time fashion design student who shows great design potential. Sophomores, juniors and seniors in the design program can apply. Applications open each December through Kent State's scholarship portal.
Who wore Stavropoulos
- Lady Bird Johnson
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
- Queen Frederica of Greece
- Queen Anne-Marie
- Maria Callas
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Sophia Loren
- Shirley MacLaine
- Evangeline Gouletas-Carey
- Eydie Gormé
- Anna Moffo
- Grace Bumbry
- Liza Minnelli
- Cicely Tyson
- Barbra Streisand
- Renata Tebaldi
- Arlene Dahl
- Loretta Swit
- Julia Meade
- Hildegarde
- Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia
- Doris Lilly
Yveta Graff was his muse for nearly thirty years. Many collections were draped on her, as he waved fabric around her and said “cut” or “don't cut.” Eydie Gormé wore his gowns for her Carnegie Hall run in 1981: “Nobody blends chiffon the way he does.”
Find Us
At the Met, in museums,
and at the White House.
Stavropoulos gowns are held by major costume collections on both sides of the Atlantic, and were once sold in New York's best stores.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Met's Costume Institute holds six Stavropoulos pieces, made between about 1960 and 1972. They range from evening and cocktail dresses to a wool day ensemble. One evening dress was given by Mildred Custin, the Bonwit Teller buyer who discovered him in 1963. The Met's ties go back further: in 1982 its costume curator, Stella Blum, called his collection “his best collection ever.”
The christening ensemble is the most personal piece. In 1969 he became godfather to the daughter of his close friends Dedie and Nicholas Coch, and he made her a gown of layered pale-pink chiffon, with crystals on tiny white bows hidden under the petticoat. The set came with a bonnet, a bib and a cashmere blanket appliquéd in chiffon and edged in velvet. The Coch family gave it to the Met in 1983.
Goddess ↗
The Costume Institute, May 1 to August 3, 2003. Curated by Harold Koda, the exhibition traced the classical, draped ideal in dress from antiquity to the present. Stavropoulos hung beside Madeleine Vionnet, Madame Grès, Fortuny, Halston and Alexander McQueen.
- Evening dressca. 1960 · Silk · Gift of Mrs. Gene Kohn, 19761976.262.1 ↗
- Evening dress1966–67 · Silk · Gift of Stephen J. Balsam, M.D. and family, 19881988.400 ↗
- Christening ensemble1969 · Silk, wool, cotton · Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Coch, 19831983.272a–d ↗
- Cocktail dress1969–71 · Synthetic fiber · Gift of Mrs. Morton Jay Seifter, 19761976.269.8 ↗
- Ensembleca. 1970 · Wool · Gift of Rosalind F. Stone, in memory of Claudia Stone, 19741974.183.7a, b ↗
- Evening dressca. 1972 · Silk · Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection; Gift of Mildred Custin, 19752009.300.2913 ↗
More museums and archives
- Kent State University MuseumAbout 150 dresses plus the house archive: 14 sketchbooks (1979–1991) and runway photographs from 1968 to 1991Kent, Ohio ↗
- Smithsonian National Museum of American HistoryPart of the national collectionWashington, D.C.
- Museum of Fine Arts, HoustonGowns from ca. 1970, 1972 and an ensemble from ca. 1985Houston ↗
- Benaki MuseumGreece's national collection of costume and cultureAthens
- FIT Special Collections (SPARC)Photo albums, sketchbooks and ephemera from the estateNew York ↗
Exhibitions
- GoddessThe Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curated by Harold Koda.The Met · 2003 ↗
- Stavropoulos49 gowns, Broadbent Gallery. Curated by Kasey Bland and Sara Hume.Kent State · 2010
- ΜΟΔΑ is FashionGladys Marcus Library, Fashion Institute of TechnologyFIT · 2022 ↗
Places
Nikis 13
The couture salon near Constitution Square, opened in 1949, where Queen Frederica was a client.
16 West 57th Street
The atelier from 1965 on, between Fifth and Sixth, where every piece was made.
The Regency Hotel
On Park Avenue. Spring and fall shows of about a hundred designs, with champagne and a Greek band.
The White House
Fittings for Lady Bird Johnson, her official portrait, and 400 gowns at the 1981 inaugural balls.
Martha's
Trunk shows at Martha's in Palm Beach and Bal Harbour. In 1977 the Palm Beach Daily News reported “Golden Greek Is Feted in Palm Beach.”
The Drake Hotel
A 1976 benefit show for the University of Chicago's cardiac research fund drew nearly 600 guests.
Stores
- Bonwit TellerThe first big order, from buyer Mildred Custin in 1963. Lady Bird Johnson bought through Bonwit's.New York
- Henry BendelFollowed Bonwit's in 1963 under president Geraldine StutzNew York
- MarthaMartha Phillips called her shop “his number one client”Park Avenue, Palm Beach, Bal Harbour
- Bergdorf Goodman and Elizabeth ArdenRegular buyers at every showNew York
- Neiman MarcusCarried the line nationwideDallas and nationwide
- Stanley Korshak and Evelyn ByrnesSpecialty stores beyond New YorkChicago and beyond
In print
- “George Stavropoulos: A Master of Classical Line in Manhattan”Caroline Rennolds Milbank, with his home photographed by Peter VitaleArchitectural Digest · Sept. 1989
- “The Master of the Chiffon Dress”Bernadine Morris, one of more than a dozen Times reviews of his collections from 1974 to 1989The New York Times · July 1, 1983
- “Chiffon Plus Simplicity Equals Elegance”Timothy HawkinsLos Angeles Times · March 23, 1984
- “The Woman Comes First”Joyce PendolaConnoisseur's World · June 1983
- Current Biography YearbookFull biographical entryH. W. Wilson · 1985
- “Stavropoulos: A Greek Name to Drop”Marylin BenderThe New York Times · July 10, 1965
- “Greek Designer Adapts Drape for U.S. Figures”Charlotte Curtis, review of his American debutThe New York Times · Nov. 8, 1961
- The Life and Career of Fashion Designer George StavropoulosKasey Bland, master's thesis, drawing on the Kent State archive and interviews with Peter Stavropoulos, Dedie Coch, Dina Dellale and Yveta GraffUniversity of Akron · 2008
- “Famous Gowns Displayed in Fashion Museum”Coverage of the Kent State retrospectiveKentWired · 2010 ↗
- “On George Stavropoulos (1920–1990)”Fashion Institute of Technology art history blogFIT · 2022 ↗