Adrienne Steckling-Coen (1934-2006), known as Adri, was an American fashion designer whose label, ''Adri'', was particularly successful in the 1970s-1980s. Born Mary Adrienne Steckling on November 7 1934 in

St. Joseph, Missouri St. Joseph is a city in and the county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri. Small parts of St. Joseph extend into Andrew County. Located on the Missouri River, it is the principal city of the St. Joseph Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includ ...

, Adri studied at the

St. Louis School of Fine Arts The St. Louis School of Fine Arts was founded as the Saint Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts in 1879 as part of Washington University in St. Louis, and has continuously offered visual arts and sculpture education since then. Its purpose-buil ...

. After winning the opportunity to be a guest editor for '' Mademoiselle'''s College Issue in 1955, she decided to move to the

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

from where she graduated in 1958. Whilst at Parsons, Steckling met

Claire McCardell Claire McCardell (May 24, 1905 – March 22, 1958) was an American fashion designer of ready-to-wear clothing in the twentieth century. She is credited with the creation of American sportswear. Early life McCardell was the eldest of four childre ...

, who would heavily inspire her early design work. She worked as a fashion assistant for

Oleg Cassini Oleg Cassini (11 April 1913 – 17 March 2006) was a fashion designer born to an aristocratic Russian family with maternal Italian ancestry. He came to the United States as a young man after starting as a designer in Rome, and quickly got ...

Anne Fogarty Anne Fogarty (February 2, 1919 – January 15, 1980) was an American fashion designer, active 1940–1980, who was noted for her understated, ladylike designs that were accessible to American women on a limited income.Sydney Wragge Sydney Wragge (1908–1978) was an American fashion designer active during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Working as B.H. Wragge, he was particularly renowned for his American sportswear, with the historian Caroline Rennolds Milbank declaring him the ...

of B.H. Wragge (who taught her tailoring and the value of separates-dressing) before launching her own business, Adri Designs Inc., in 1966. Other labels she launched include ''Collectors Items'' and ''Clothes Circuit''. Like her mentor, McCardell, Adri dedicated herself to designing for the modern, "unequivocally contemporary" woman. While her work was subsequently described as

sportswear Sportswear or activewear is clothing, including footwear, worn for sport or physical exercise. Sport-specific clothing is worn for most sports and physical exercise, for practical, comfort or safety reasons. Typical sport-specific garments ...

(an industry term describing easy-styled relaxed dressing, rather than literally sporting clothing), Adri told ''

Women's Wear Daily ''Women's Wear Daily'' (also known as ''WWD'') is a fashion-industry trade journal often referred to as the "Bible of fashion".Horyn, Cathy"Breaking Fashion News With a Provocative Edge" ''The New York Times''. (August 20, 1999). It provides infor ...

'' just before her 1966 debut that her work was not sportswear, but clothes for women with active lifestyles. She was known for her trousers and culotte skirt designs, and focused on classic mix-and-match separates so that her customers could collect various garments over the years to assemble into personalized ensembles. In 1971 the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

held an exhibition titled "Innovative Contemporary Fashion: Adri and McCardell." In 1982 she was awarded the

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

for womenswear design. Soon after winning the Coty, she launched a menswear line. From the mid-1980s into the 1990s, she provided designs to Vogue Patterns to enable home dressmakers to create Adri garments themselves. In 1976, Adri opened ''Adri Studio Limited'' on Seventh Avenue to make designer sportswear. It was still in business in 2006, operating out of Adri's loft to cater to private clients and individual orders, rather than wholesale manufacture. Adri died at home on 5 November 2006 of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

, two days short of her 72nd birthday. Former colleagues, such as her assistant Nadia Abdella, and the company's former chief executive officer, Jeanne Atkinson, recalled her as both iconoclastic and a "real purist" as well as consistently elegant, and she remained working to the end. She married Fabio Coen in 1982, and had two sons who survived her. Her archives are held by the Parsons New School of Design.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steckling-Coen, Adrienne 1934 births 2006 deaths American women fashion designers American fashion designers People from St. Joseph, Missouri People with Parkinson's disease Parsons School of Design alumni