Stephen Burrows (designer)

Burrows's lettuce hem, a rippling edge made by overstretching jersey as it was sewn, began as a mistake and became one of the defining looks of 1970s disco dressing. Henri Bendel gave him his own boutique inside the store in 1970, and in 1973 he became the first Black designer to win a Coty Award. That November he was one of the five Americans at the Battle of Versailles, the show where American ready-to-wear upstaged the French couturiers. Look for his graphic color blocking in matte jersey as well as the hem: together they are the clearest picture of how 1970s New York wanted to move.