Sketching fashion and fads

While traveling the world with her husband — prominent fashion designer Bert Geiger — Lorraine Geiger carried a sketchbook filled with drawings of people whose clothing caught her eye.

And when the couple moved to Chapel Hill in the ‘90s, Lorraine Geiger continued to fill the pages of the book — which grew to 300 sketches — with depictions of colorful people she encountered.

“Sometimes she followed people, if she thought they were interesting,” said Clare Bauer, Lorraine Geiger’s daughter.

Though she passed away in 2006, Bert Geiger said he is publishing his late wife’s sketchbook, “Fashion, Fads and Fantasies,” in the coming months. It will be available on Amazon.

This week was Fashion Week in New York — and in weeks like these, the Geigers would hold exhibitions for retailers such as Talbots and Bloomingdale’s in their workshop in New York.

In her life, Lorraine Geiger showed an objective interest in people and a fearless approach to fashion. In the book’s introduction, Lorraine Geiger wrote that in an era where designers were struggling for new ideas, young people became fashion leaders.

“In their rebellion against the status quo, the young created their own fashions,” she wrote.

“Young girls favored skimpy bustier tops or midriff-revealing halters. Cleavage was back and underwear was often seen as outerwear,” she continued.

Clunky Doc Martens, see-through baby-doll dresses, velvet berets, black top hats and gold suits are just some of the eclectic pieces found in her work.

“Being around high fashion was a dream for her,” Bauer said. “Every home she lived in was a work of art. She just wanted to create beauty.”

Bauer said when her mother was young, her family would run away from creditors, which hampered her schooling. As a result, she turned to drawing.

“She would try to be discreet about it and probably most people didn’t know they were sketched.”

Despite her upbringing, Lorraine Geiger went on to attend Parson’s School of Design and the New York School of Fine Arts and Applied Design, pursuing a professional career until she married.

After her marriage, she helped to design the fabrics her husband used and continued sketching and painting.

Bert Geiger said she wanted people in the future to see what people wore in this century as if they were walking in the street.

“Everything, down to the button holes or the shoelaces were accurate,” he said.

Bauer described her mother as independent and passionate.

“One time she said, ‘I’m going over to Paris and I’m going to paint for a month,’ and she did.”

Two decades later, many of the fashions Lorraine observed in the ‘90s can still be seen around campus or on the streets of Carrboro or Chapel Hill.

Ariel Wyman, a senior studio art and global studies major, described a girl studying in the Weaver Street Market cafe in one of Lorraine’s sketches as a “hipster of the ‘90s.”

“People still go to Weaver Street to show off their fashion.”

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