Cynthia Rowley is an American fashion designer based in the Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1988. Rowley was kicked out of her junior year art show at SAIC because her use of wings in her design. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Rowley said that Marshall Field's had bought her first collection while she was still a student at SAIC.
In 1981, Rowley won an SAIC fellowship award in her senior year and used the money to move from Chicago to New York City. She then launched her career with $3,000 in seed money from one of her grandmother's. Since Rowley launched her first capsule collection in 1988, has grown to include women's wear, handbags, glasses, color cosmetics, fragrance, wetsuits and swimwear, home furnishings, bedding products, and office accessories.
The designer also created a line of home accessories called Swell, based on a book series she co-wrote with friend Ilene Rosenzweig, which made its debut at Target in 2003. In 2011 Rowley presented the Mr. Powers collection, a limited menswear range named after her husband Bill Powers.
Rowley's fashions are presented bi-annually at New York Fashion Week. Signature Cynthia Rowley stores are in New York City, Chicago, Montauk, Palm Beach, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, and Newport Beach as well as at the company's web store.
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