Jeffrey Banks (born November 3, 1955) is an American fashion designer and author, who has been described as a major black fashion maker.

Early life

Banks worked as a design assistant to

Ralph Lauren Ralph Lauren ( ; ; born October 14, 1939) is an American fashion designer, philanthropist, and billionaire businessman, best known for founding the brand Ralph Lauren (brand), Ralph Lauren, a global multibillion-dollar enterprise. He stepped do ...

(1971 to 1973) and

Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer. In 1968, he launched the company that later became Calvin Klein. In addition to clothing, he has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewellery. ...

(1973 to 1976). He has claimed credit for Klein's logo garments, stating that he had the logo from a press folder silkscreened onto the sleeve of a brown

T-shirt A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt, or tee for short) is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a '' crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shir ...

as a present for Klein. The gift was assumed by Barry K. Schwartz to be part of the upcoming line, and similar shirts formed the uniform for the front-of-house staff at Klein's next catwalk show, leading to the buyers asking to purchase them.

Career

After leaving Calvin Klein, Banks launched his own-name label in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1977, according to his official website, although some sources state 1978. By 1996, suits, shirts,

eyewear Eyewear is a term used to refer to all devices worn over both of a person's eyes, or occasionally a single eye, for one or more of a variety of purposes. Though historically used for vision improvement and correction, eyewear has also evolved into ...

and accessories from ''Jeffrey Banks Ltd.'' and ''Jeffrey Banks International'' were being sold worldwide with sales of about $20 million.

Author

As an author, Jeffrey Banks has co-authored three fashion books with Doria de La Chapelle for Rizzoli, including a 2007 book on

tartan Tartan or plaid ( ) is a patterned cloth consisting of crossing horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours, forming repeating symmetrical patterns known as ''setts''. Originating in woven wool, tartan is most strongly associated wi ...

, a 2011 book on the

preppy Preppy (also spelled as preppie, or prep), is an American subculture associated with the alumni of college-preparatory schools in the Northeastern United States. The term, which is an abbreviation of "preparatory", is used to denote a person ...

style, and a 2015 book on the milliner Patricia Underwood. The second book led to Banks and de La Chapelle collaborating with Erica Lennard on ''Perry Ellis: An American Original'', the first in-depth

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

on Banks's former friend and colleague, the designer

Perry Ellis Perry Edwin Ellis (March 3, 1940 – May 30, 1986) was an American fashion designer who founded his eponymous sportswear house in the mid-1970s. Ellis' influence on the fashion industry has been called "a huge turning point" because he in ...

, published in 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banks, Jeffrey 1955 births Living people African-American fashion designers American fashion designers Businesspeople from Washington, D.C. Menswear designers African-American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American writers