The Cincinnati Art Museum has unveiled its next major exhibit.
Titled “Elizabeth Hawes: Radical American Fashion,” it’s the first ever showcase of the woman who shaped American fashion at large through her work as a designer. More than 50 garments from the 1920s to the 1960s will be featured, alongside sketches, illustrations and the first publication devoted entirely to Hawes’s career.
Hawes, who lived from 1903–1971, was a radical designer, author and social commentator whose ideas were consistently far ahead of her time. This exhibition marks the first major museum presentation of Hawes’s long-overlooked work, tracing her early design methods, the evolution of her career, and her lasting influence on American fashion.
Longtime Cincinnati Art Museum Curator of Fashion Arts and Textiles, Cynthia Amnéus, curated this exhibition and wrote for and edited the accompanying catalogue before her retirement in early 2026. Her many years of original research on Hawes are reflected in this examination of the American designer’s career.
At a moment when American fashion was overwhelmingly dominated by Parisian influence, Hawes emerged as the first visible American couturier.
Though she briefly moonlighted in Paris, Hawes firmly believed that American women deserved clothing designed and produced on American soil, shaped by the realities of their lives rather than European trends.
She famously articulated this position in her first book, “Fashion is Spinach,” a sharp critique of blind devotion to French fashion and the follies of the fashion industry that became a manifesto for independent American design.
“Though today not many people know her by name, we’re all familiar with conventions that Hawes introduced to our way of dressing,” said Megan Nauer, acting curator of fashion arts and textiles. “When you read her sharp-tongued words, you recognize things we still wrestle with, both in dressing ourselves and in the functioning of the fashion industry.”
Hawes forecasted developments such as gender-neutral clothing, paper garments and methods for quality mass manufacturing, ideas that would not enter the mainstream until the 1960s and beyond. Her designs emphasized ease for both women and men, reflecting her belief that fashion should serve the wearer rather than restrict them.
After closing her couture house in 1940 as America turned toward World War II, Hawes pursued a strikingly diverse career. She wrote for the left-leaning PM magazine, worked in an airplane engine factory during the war and later became a labor organizer for the United Auto Workers. Her outspoken socio-political views eventually led to her being blacklisted by the FBI.
“Elizabeth Hawes: Radical American Fashion” will be on view in the Cincinnati Art Museum from April 24–August 2, 2026. Admission is free. For more information, click here.