Geoffrey Beene

Beene was one of New York's most famous fashion designers, recognized for his artistic and technical skills and for creating simple, comfortable and dressy women's wear.

[1] The sale closed on August 2, 2021, with United Legwear & Apparel Company named as its licensee alongside the Van Heusen and Arrow brands.

[3] Beene was born on August 30, 1924, as Samuel Albert Bozeman Jr.[4] in the small rural town of Haynesville, Louisiana, located just south of the Arkansas state line.

Beene moved to Los Angeles, where he studied fashion design at the University of Southern California and worked in the display department of the I. Magnin retail store until 1947.

By the mid-1970s, Beene had a number of licensing agreements for products such as eyeglasses and bed sheets, and also his most famously known cologne called Grey Flannel, launched in 1975.

It contains notes of orange, lemon, rose, geranium, sandalwood and cedar wood, and is considered a classic men's fragrance winning a FIFI Award in 1976.

Beene's clients included Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Nancy Reagan, Faye Dunaway and Glenn Close.