Cynthia Rowley constructed her first dress when she was seven years old. Her intuitive technical skill paired with a love of “making things” led her to an undergraduate degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she began to pursue a career in fashion. Her first full collection was purchased while she was still in school, and gave her the leverage she needed to move to New York and establish her brand. Rowley’s namesake collection has since grown to include womenswear, menswear, eyewear, handbags, shoes, legwear, shapewear, wetsuits, as well as collaborations with Johnson & Johnson, and Procter and Gamble, to name a few. Rowley has been recognized within the fashion industry, with a CFDA womenswear award and a nomination for menswear, and is consistently called upon as a style authority on Project Runway, Oprah, David Letterman, The Today Show, and America’s Next Top Model, among others. Her work has been featured in nearly every major magazine and newspaper domestically and internationally, and is sold in over sixty Cynthia Rowley boutiques around the world. An art enthusiast, Cynthia has collaborated with artists like SAIC’s Nick Cave, Will Cotton, Olaf Breuning, and Ryan McNamara on various ventures and collections and has designed a capsule collection for the Gagosian Gallery. She co-founded the groundbreaking art retail site Exhibition A, the first endeavor stemming from a company initiative encouraging entrepreneurial thinking. The second initiative to launch is CuRious— a candy and party accessory collection. The first store location is on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, with a second location recently opened in the West Village. The Cynthia Rowley Collection is sold in better department, specialty and online stores.
