Hope Skillman Schary ( 1908 –1981) was an American

textile designer Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

and business executive. She founded the textile manufacturing company Skillmill (originally Hope Skillman, Inc.). She was a

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

leader, heading organizations devoted to women. She served as president of The Fashion Group and the

National Council of Women of the United States The National Council of Women of the United States (NCW/US) is the oldest nonsectarian organization of women in America. Officially founded in 1888, the NCW/US is an accredited non-governmental organization (NGO) with the Department of Public In ...

and as vice president of the

International Council of Women The International Council of Women (ICW) is a women's rights organization working across national boundaries for the common cause of advocating human rights for women. In March and April 1888, women leaders came together in Washington, D.C., with ...

Early life and education

Hope Skillman was born around 1908 in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...

to Mary Christie and Frederic Cameron Skillman. She grew up in New York City where she attended private and public schools. She attended

Goucher College Goucher College ( ') is a private liberal arts college in Towson, Maryland. It was chartered in 1885 by a conference in Baltimore led by namesake John F. Goucher and local leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church.https://archive.org/details/h ...

in Maryland where she was a

Kappa Alpha Theta Kappa Alpha Theta (), also known simply as Theta, is an international women’s fraternity founded on January 27, 1870, at DePauw University, formerly Indiana Asbury. It was the first Greek-letter fraternity established for women. The main arch ...

sister and a member of the Goucher College Club.

Career

Schary began her career in the fashion industry in New York City in the 1930s. She was an associate editor at ''

Parnassus Mount Parnassus (; el, Παρνασσός, ''Parnassós'') is a mountain range of central Greece that is and historically has been especially valuable to the Greek nation and the earlier Greek city-states for many reasons. In peace, it offers ...

'' magazine from 1932 to 1933 and an editor with ''The Fine Arts'' magazine from 1933 to 1934. She worked as a creative stylist for the Tabin-Picker Company and was hired as an assistant stylist at the Ameritex division of Cohn-Hall-Marx Co. in 1934. She became a stylist at Cohn-Hall-Marx in 1935 and was director from 1939 to 1942. Schary was among the first American textile designers, and in 1942 founded her own textile manufacturing company, Hope Skillman Inc. The company, later renamed Skillmill, Inc., designed and produced a line of textiles under her name. Schary was called the "only woman cotton fabric converter in the United States" and was likely the first woman owner of a textile manufacturer. She sold her textiles to stores and designers. For a number of years, even after World War II, her company solely employed women. She served as the company's chief executive until the early 1960s when she retired. In answer to a question regarding how she had settled on her career, she replied that she "needed to become self-sustaining" and wanted to make use of her education and ambition.

Women's rights movement and retirement

Following her retirement from Skillmill in the 1960s, Schary turned her focus to

and led several organizations dedicated to the advancement of women. She was president of Fashion Group, Inc., a fashion industry association for women, from 1958 to 1960 and served on its advisory council. She was president of the

from 1970 to 1972. She served a second term as the council's president from 1976 to 1978. She represented the council on commissions in Washington D.C. and served as the organization's representative to the

. She was also a vice president of the International Council of Women. Schary was a boardmember of the Coalition of National Volunteer Organizations and the

National Center for Voluntary Action The National Center for Voluntary Action was an independent, private, non-profit organization that existed in the 1970s, and then extended on in merged forms, that sought to encourage volunteerism on the part of American citizens and organizations, ...

. She had membership with the Inner Circle in New York City and the Cosmopolitan Club.

Personal life

Schary married painter Saul Schary on December 15, 1934. She lived in

New Milford, Connecticut New Milford is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The town is in western Connecticut, north of Danbury, on the banks of the Housatonic River, and it shares its border with the northeastern shore of Candlewood Lake. It is t ...

and had a New York residence in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. Her husband died in 1978. Schary died at her New Milford home on May 23, 1981.

Early life and education

Career

Women's rights movement and retirement

Personal life

References

Further reading