Helen Brockman

Infobox person


image_size = 150px
name = Helen Brockman
caption =
birth_date = September 24, 1902
birth_place = Palo, Iowa, United States
death_date = death date and age|2008|7|22|1902|9|24
death_place = Manhattan, Kansas, United States
occupation = Fashion designer, author and professor

Helen Lewis Brockman (September 24, 1902–July 22, 2008) was an American fashion designer, author and professor.

Biography

Born in Palo, Iowa to Levi Lewis and Ida Mae Ashworth, Brockman found herself living in New York City at the outbreak of the Second World War without a career, and later without a husband, who sent her a letter from London, England stating that he was divorcing her to marry his secretary. [ [http://www.themercury.com/news/obituaries/article.aspx?articleId=de2952bd5ce846149266c6021799bb00 "Manhattan Mercury" obituary] ] She essentially created a career for herself in the fashion industry as a pattern designer. Before her first retirement in 1968, she taught at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology for nine years.

At age 66, when most people are retiring, Brockman accepted a position at Kansas State University in the College of Human Ecology's Department of Clothing and Textiles teaching fashion design. She remained with the department until her second retirement in 1974.

Brockman's 1965 work, "The Theory of Fashion Design", is what made her name widely known in the fashion industry; this text was a definitive work on the subject for many years.

Until November 2007, Brockman lived independently in her home adjacent to the university campus. She worked as a social host to visiting faculty and other dignitaries who stayed as guests of the university in the Brockman House. Helen Brockman died in Manhattan, Kansas. She donated her body to the University of Kansas School of Medicine.

Publications

* "Air Raid Precautions" (New York: American Women's Voluntary Services), 1942 (with May Breen).
* "The Theory of Fashion Design" (New York: Wiley), 1965.
* "Development of a Crepe Fabric for Use in Scarfs" (Dayton, OH: Air Force Systems Command), 1966.
* "The Skirt Handbook" (Manhattan, KS: Kansas State University), 1968.
* "The Slacks Handbook: Basic Pattern Development and Derivation of City Pants, Culottes and Slim Pants" (Manhattan, KS: Kansas State University), 1968.
* "The Slacks Handbook: Basic Pattern Development and Styling of City Pants, Jeans and Gaucho Pants" (Manhattan, KS: Kansas State University), 1973.
* "Mod-u-lar Pattern System Handbook" (Manhattan, KS: Kansas State University Research Foundation), 1993.
* "Both Sides of Nice" (Manhattan, KS: KS Publishing, Inc.), 2005. ISBN 0-975410-93-8

References