Riley, Robert (1911-2001)

Dates

• Existence: 1911-2001

Biography

"Robert Riley, an expert on fashion design who oversaw collections and organized design shows at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Fashion Institute of Technology, died on Oct. 6 at a hospital in Hyannis, Mass. He was 90 and lived in Truro, Mass. Mr. Riley retired in 1981 after two decades as director of the design laboratory of the Fashion Institute, in Manhattan. Earlier he held posts in the design field at the Brooklyn Museum for decades. Looking back in 1981 at recent fashion history, he said ruefully, ''The social upheaval of the 50's and 60's broke the back of the fashion business so that people are no longer concerned with how they look or with what's coming out of Paris.'' Some weeks before he left the Fashion Institute, he oversaw his last costume show there, a retrospective of the work of the noted textile and fabric designer Mario Fortuny. One fashion writer wrote of Mr. Riley at the time that the exhibition reflected ''the teamwork, good planning and unerring eye that are his trademarks.''"

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