James Galanos, American fashion designer, Died at 92

  Artists

James Galanos was born on September 20, 1924, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and died on October 30, 2016.

He was an American fashion designer and couturier.

He was the only child of Greek-born parents.

James’ mother, Helen Gorgoliatos, and his father, Gregory Galanos, a frustrated artist, together they ran a restaurant in southern New Jersey, where Galanos had his first glimpses of well-dressed women.

During 1944, James Galanos got a position as a general assistant at the New York East 49th Street emporium of Hattie Carnegie, the birthplace of such talents as Jean Louis, Pauline Trigère, and Norman Norell.

He was the subject of countless museum solo exhibitions, and his designs are in the permanent collections of important museums worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, U.K, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in Los Angeles, Musée Galliera in Paris, France, the Phoenix Art Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, N.Y., the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, N.Y. and the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, California.

His career spanned over more than half a century.

“To him, fashion is all about making women look beautiful,” wrote Anne-Marie Schiro in The New York Times, “and he has devoted 44 years of his life to designing clothes to that end” – He “was always a hero to all those who worshiped at the feet of fashion, not just those who wore the clothes”, wrote Bernardine Morris in an introduction to the catalogue of Galanos’ retrospective exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1996- “He was heralded as the equal of any of the mythic group of French designers who represented the apotheosis of fashion.

James was the uncle of fine jewelry designer Diana Vincent, of Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania. He retired in 1998 and lived in Palm Springs, California and West Hollywood.

He was never married.

James Galanos passed away at 92 years old.