Joan "Tiger" Morse (April 23, 1931 – April 22, 1972), was an American fashion designer, businessperson and

socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...

. She was known for her 1960s avant-garde clothing design and had owned a few boutique shops in New York City, with celebrity clients. Morse was the subject of the

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

film, ''Tiger Morse (Reel 14 of ****)'' (1967). She also worked as a costume designer for John Chamberlain film '' The Secret Life of Hernando Cortez'' (1968). Morse lived most of her life in New York City, with a period in London in late life.

Early life and education

Joan Sugarman was born on April 23, 1931, in New York City, the daughter of Marcia Sand (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Freedman), and

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

-born architect Morris Henry Sugarman. Her family was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and her parents divorced in 1944. She attended the Lincoln School, and the Cherry Lawn School in Darien, Connecticut. Morse attended

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

and

Sorbonne University Sorbonne University (french: Sorbonne Université; la Sorbonne: 'the Sorbonne') is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sorbon ...

. She legally changed her name to Joan M. Sand (her mother's maiden name), before her engagement in 1951 to William A. Moses.

Career

Morse was the proprietress of the "A La Carte" starting in 1955, later known as the "Kaleidoscope" starting in 1964; Tiger's Toys; and the "Teeny Weeny", a boutique located on Madison Avenue at 73rd Street in New York City. She sold

ready-to-wear Ready-to-wear (or ''prêt-à-porter''; abbreviated RTW; "off-the-rack" or "off-the-peg" in casual use) is the term for ready-made garments, sold in finished condition in standardized sizes, as distinct from made-to-measure or bespoke clothing ...

, and

made-to-measure Made-to-measure (MTM) typically refers to custom clothing that is cut and sewn using a standard-sized base pattern. Suits and sport coats are the most common garments made-to-measure. The fit of a made-to-measure garment is expected to be superio ...

clothing. She also designed shoes and boots. In 1967, Morse was working on designing clothing with kinetics (early electronic clothing) for the "psychedelic collection". Her stores were decorated eccentrically. Amongst her clients were

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A pop ...

, Florence Knoll Bassett, Jean Harvey Vanderbilt, and

Twiggy Dame Lesley Lawson (''née'' Hornby; born 19 September 1949) is an English model, actress, and singer, widely known by the nickname Twiggy. She was a British cultural icon and a prominent teenaged model during the swinging '60s in London. ...

. In her early career Morse was interested in working with saris, kimonos, and textiles from Asia. In 1962, Morse was featured in an eight page spread in

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

magazine, with photographs by Mark Shaw, where she was attending to a textile buying trip in multiple locations in Asia. Her work shifted in the early 1960s towards fluorescent colors and more dramatic dress silhouettes; signaling an early change towards counterculture fashion. Her other interests included miniskirts and mini dresses, oversized sunglasses, paper dresses, "little girl dresses" (i.e., babydoll dresses) made with creative fabrics, artificially colored furs, mod fashion, mirrors and mirror balls, "

Uncle Sam Uncle Sam (which has the same initials as ''United States'') is a common national personification of the federal government of the United States or the country in general. Since the early 19th century, Uncle Sam has been a popular symbol of ...

" themed clothes, and vinyl clothing. Her 1966 fashion show was held in her friend

Jan Yoors Jan Yoors (12 April 192227 November 1977) was a Belgian-American artist, photographer, painter, sculptor, writer, filmmaker, and tapestry creator. Growing up in Antwerp to liberal, pacifist parents, his father Eugeen Yoors, a famed stained-gl ...

artist loft in Manhattan, and featured black lights, fluorescent clothing, and a catwalk suspended above the audience; it was attended by

and the

Factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

Edie Sedgwick Edith Minturn Sedgwick Post (April 20, 1943 – November 16, 1971) was an American actress and fashion model, known for being one of Andy Warhol's superstars.Watson, Steven (2003), "Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties" Pantheon Books, pp. 210& ...

Halston Roy Halston Frowick (April 23, 1932 – March 26, 1990), known mononymously as Halston, was an American fashion designer who rose to international fame in the 1970s. His minimalist, clean designs, often made of cashmere or ultrasuede, were ...

, and others. Morse was named one of the "fashion revolutionaries" in New York by

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 ...

in 1966, alongside

Baby Jane Holzer Jane Holzer (née Brukenfeld; born October 23, 1940) is an American art collector and film producer who was previously an actress, model, and Warhol superstar. She was often known by the nickname Baby Jane Holzer. Biography The daughter of real ...

Pierre Cardin Pierre Cardin (, , ), born Pietro Costante Cardino (2 July 1922 – 29 December 2020), was an Italian-born naturalised-French fashion designer. He is known for what were his avant-garde style and Space Age designs. He preferred geometric shap ...

Paco Rabanne Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo (born 18 February 1934), more commonly known under the pseudonym of Paco Rabanne (; ), is a Spanish fashion designer who became known as an ''enfant terrible'' of the 1960s French fashion world. Early life and educati ...

Rudi Gernreich Rudolf "Rudi" Gernreich (August 8, 1922 April 21, 1985) was an Austrian people, Austrian-born American fashion designer whose avant-garde clothing designs are generally regarded as the most innovative and dynamic fashion of the 1960s. He purposef ...

André Courrèges André Courrèges (; 9 March 1923 – 7 January 2016) was a French fashion designer. He was particularly known for his streamlined 1960s designs influenced by modernism and futurism, exploiting modern technology and new fabrics. Courrèges d ...

Emanuel Ungaro Emanuel Ungaro (13 February 1933 – 21 December 2019) was a French fashion designer who founded the eponymous fashion house in 1965. Early life Ungaro's Italian father fled to France from Francavilla Fontana of Brindisi province because of the ...

, Yves Saint Laurent, and

Mary Quant Dame Barbara Mary Quant, Mrs Plunket Greene, (born 11 February 1930)The Mary Quant exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2019-20 stated her year of birth as 1930, and that she became a student at Goldsmiths College around 1950. is a ...

. In 1967, Morse was working on designing clothing with kinetics (early electronic clothing) for the "psychedelic collection". She was a costume designer for the John Chamberlain film ''The Secret Life of Hernando Cortez'' (1968), filmed in Mexico starring

Ultra Violet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation i ...

and

Taylor Mead Taylor Mead (December 31, 1924 – May 8, 2013) was an American writer, actor and performer. Mead appeared in several of Andy Warhol's underground films filmed at Warhol's The Factory, Factory, including ''Tarzan and Jane Regained... Sort of ...

Death and legacy

She moved to London towards the end of her life. Morse was a known

amphetamine Amphetamine (contracted from alpha- methylphenethylamine) is a strong central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, and obesity. It is also commonly used ...

addict, and died on April 22, 1972, at age 40 from a drug overdose while visiting New York City. She had been married multiple times, and had one son, Henry Winston Moses. Her fashion work is in museum collections including at the

Museum of the City of New York A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these i ...

; and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. She is included in the historical archives at the

Dolph Briscoe Center for American History The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History is an organized research unit and public service component of the University of Texas at Austin named for Dolph Briscoe, the 41st governor of Texas. The center collects and preserves documents and ar ...

; and the Toronto Public Library Archive. Around 2013, the Warhol film featuring Morse, ''Tiger Morse (Reel 14 of ****)'' (1967) was restored and has been shown during screening events. In 2015, the art exhibition "Tiger Morse by Mark Shaw: Jet-Set Style Quest 1962" curated by Alan Rosenberg with the Mark Shaw Photographic Archive, held at the Liz O’Brien Gallery in New York City. In 2017–2018, her work was part of the group exhibition "Mod New York: Fashion Takes a Trip" at the Museum of the City of New York.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morse, Tiger 1931 births 1972 deaths American women fashion designers Women costume designers American costume designers Syracuse University alumni 1960s fashion 20th-century American women American fashion businesspeople Paris-Sorbonne University alumni American emigrants to the United Kingdom Fashion designers from London Businesspeople from New York City Drug-related deaths Drug-related deaths in New York City People associated with The Factory American Jews

Early life and education

Career

Death and legacy

See also

References

External links