Forgotten Designer Georgia Bullock

Designer Georgia Bullock

Georgia Bullock was born in about 1918.  Her interest in designing began at an early age when she made clothes for her dolls and dressed them in the latest styles.

1945

Her first job in the fashion world was a a floor model for Bullock's Wilshire store.  Though you might think so, Georgia Bullock was no relation to the Bullock's retail family.  Georgia Bullock had her own line briefly in the 1940s, but by 1953, she was designing for Nelly Don in Kansas City.

1963

In 1954, Bullock returned to Los Angeles and founded the first corporation in the fashion world with an all female executive team. 

Late 1950s

Her line of simple, elegant and expensive fashions was very popular in the late 1950s and 1960s and was sold in the finest shops and department stores all across the U.S. When her clothing became popular with women of means, Bullock began having private fashion shows on the tennis courts of her Holmby Hills home.

1960s

Bullock continued to have private showings for her elite clientele after she moved to Palm Springs in the 1970s.  She stopped designing sometime in the late 1970s and died in 1991.

1960

Forgotten Designer Marjorie Michael

Marjorie Michael in 1961

Marjorie Michael started her California based dress business in 1948 with 2 sewing machines and 2 employees.  She had a desire to make "custom look clothing that also made women look like women."

1958

While largely forgotten today, Marjorie Michael's creations were considered on par with her contemporaries Peggy Hunt and Dorothy O'Hara.  By 1961, the Marjorie Michael business employed over 60 people and her dresses were sold in over 800 stores and department stores in the U.S.

1955

Michael had one quirk when making her designs.  She only used natural fibers like silk and cotton.  She never used synthetics or synthetic blends, as she felt they were not the high quality she wanted to maintain for garments bearing her label.  Most of her fabrics were imported from France and Italy.  And she liked to purposely use "cotton that doesn't look like cotton."

1950

In the early 1950s, Gracie Allen wore many Marjorie Michael dresses on "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show."  The Marjorie Michael company went out of business sometime in the early 1970s.