Betsey Johnson for Alley Cat patterns for Butterick, 1970s.
I was very sorry to hear about Betsey Johnson filing for bankruptcy yesterday. While I haven't bought anything new from her in a decade, when I was 16 her dresses were pretty much the ultimate for me. Since then my interest in her has shifted to her earlier work, especially her brightly coloured sweater dresses from the 80s (I live in a red one patterned with huge neon shells come winter) and her 70s work with Alley Cat. Above are two of my favourite patterns she did for Butterick- some day I will get around to making them...
Hopefully the company can regroup and use this as a way to refocus the company around its core clientele and original message- it seemed to me that in recent years the fabrics have become increasingly poorer quality and there has been a sameness to the collections- a lack of the creativity that marked her earlier work.