Katja Ingergard Geiger (born Karin Ingegerd Hallberg; 12 January 1920 – 25 January 2017), better known as Katja of Sweden, was a Swedish fashion designer.

Early life and career

After studying art and design at

Konstfack Konstfack, or University of Arts, Crafts and Design, is a university college for higher education in the area of art, crafts and design in Stockholm, Sweden. History Konstfack has had several different names since it was founded in 1844 by the e ...

and Beckmans in Stockholm, Sweden, Karin moved to New York City in 1946 to study fashion design at Parson's School of Design. There she married movie producer and director Rod E. Geiger who at the time was producing movies for

Roberto Rossellini Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...

. Katja and her husband launched the Katja of Sweden brand in the late 1940s. Katja became close friends with Rosselini's wife

Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary ''Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is often ...

, and named a blouse after her that became a fashion hit. She was the designer for Arthur Sportswear which used contractors including those in the Bronx which employed 50 seamstresses turning out her products. Being close friends with

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...

, and

Edward Dmytryk Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was an American film director. He was known for his 1940s films noir, noir films and received an Academy Award for Best Director, Oscar nomination for Best Director for ''Crossfire (film), Cros ...

who was one of the

Hollywood Ten The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying empl ...

, the

Hollywood blacklist The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying emplo ...

ordeal got Mr. Geiger in hot water. The couple moved to Huaröd in Sweden in 1953, where the label "Katja of Sweden" became a fashion sensation which lasted for over twenty years. In 1975, they moved back to New York City, where Katja began designing home textiles, bed sheets, and kitchenware. "Katja shops" opened up in

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

department store and

Cannon Mills The Cannon Mills Company was an American textile manufacturing company based in Kannapolis, North Carolina, that mainly produced towels and bed sheets. Founded in 1887 by James William Cannon, by 1914 the company was the largest towel and sheet ...

manufactured her designs under license. In the 1980s advertisements featuring

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...

and

Larry Hagman Larry Martin Hagman (September 21, 1931 – November 23, 2012) was an American film and television actor, director, and producer, best known for playing ruthless oil baron J. R. Ewing in the 1978–1991 primetime television soap opera, ''Dal ...

sleeping in "Katja sheets" ran with the tagline "Two of the Most Famous Names in America Sleep Together" In 1995, the Geigers moved back to Sweden to be closer to family. Rod Geiger died in 2000. Katja's clothes are now part of the permanent collection of the Museum "Kulturen" in Lund, Sweden. She died on 25 January 2017 at the age of 97.

Early life and career

Awards

References

External links

Further reading