Mark Mooring (1901–1971) was an American fashion and costume designer. He grew up in Texas and graduated from

Parsons School of Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

, New York, in 1923. After this, he designed costumes for

Broadway theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...

productions including '' Song of the Flames'' (1925) and ''

Dearest Enemy ''Dearest Enemy'' is a musical with a book by Herbert Fields, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and music by Richard Rodgers. This was the first of eight book musicals written by the songwriting team of Rodgers and Hart and writer Herbert Fields, and the f ...

'' (1926). Between 1933 and 1948, Mooring was a designer for the custom department of

Bergdorf Goodman Bergdorf Goodman Inc. is an American luxury department store based in New York City, founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf. , it operates a women's store and a men's store across the street from each other on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. ...

. While there he worked alongside

Leslie Morris Leslie Tom Morris (October 10, 1904 – November 13, 1964) was a Welsh-Canadian politician, journalist and longtime member of the Communist Party of Canada and, its front group, the Labor-Progressive Party. He was leader of the Ontario Labor ...

and Mary Gleason, and the three of them became known as a strong design team and the store's best known designers. For his work at Bergdorf's, Mooring was awarded a

Coty Award The Coty American Fashion Critics' Awards (awarded 1943–1984) were created in 1942 by the cosmetics and perfume company Coty to promote and celebrate American fashion, and encourage design during the Second World War. In 1985, the Coty Awards we ...

in 1947 alongside Jacob H. Horwitz, Nettie Rosenstein and

Adele Simpson Adele Simpson (December 8,''Adele Simpson'', Current Biography Yearbook, H.W. Wilson Company, 1971, p. 397. 1903 '' – '' August 23, 1995) was an American fashion designer with a successful career that spanned nearly five decades, as well as a ...

. The awards that year were awarded to representatives of the four main branches of the American fashion industry, with Mooring representing bespoke high-end design while the others represented high end wholesale (Rosenstein), mid-priced wholesale (Simpson) and junior fashion (Horwitz). Women dressed by Mooring included

Ina Claire Ina Claire (born Ina Fagan; October 15, 1893February 21, 1985) was an American stage and film actress. Early years Ina Fagan was born October 15, 1893, in Washington, D.C. After the death of her father, Claire began doing imitations of fellow b ...

and

Margaret Leighton Margaret Leighton (26 February 1922 – 13 January 1976) was an English actress. Known for her work on stage and screen, her film appearances included Anthony Asquith's ''The Winslow Boy'' (her first credited film role), Alfred Hitchcock's ' ...

. After working for

Elizabeth Arden Elizabeth Arden (December 31, 1881 – October 18, 1966), also known as Elizabeth N. Graham, was a Canadian-American businesswoman who founded what is now Elizabeth Arden, Inc., and built a cosmetics empire in the United States. Backg ...

and other Seventh Avenue establishments, he would return to Bergdorf's in 1960. In 1962 Mooring moved to Hollywood, where he worked with a designer called Marusia until his death, aged 71, on January 5, 1971, following a stroke. Garments designed by him are preserved in the

Costume Institute The Anna Wintour Costume Center is a wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art The Met Fifth Avenue, main building in Manhattan that houses the collection of the Costume Institute, a curatorial department of the museum focused on fashion and costume ...

at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, and the

Fashion Institute of Technology The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college under the State University of New York, in New York City. It focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It was founded in ...

holds a collection of sketches and drawings, as well as archives covering the years 1923 to 1959.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mooring, Mark 1901 births 1971 deaths 20th-century American designers Artists from Texas American costume designers