Mary Brosnan (February 2, 1906 – January 20, 1988), also known as Mary Brosnan Kratschmer, was an American businesswoman and mannequin designer, winner of the Neiman-Marcus Fashion Award in 1966.
Mary Brosnan | |
---|---|
Born | February 2, 1906 New York |
Died | January 1988 New York |
Other names | Mary Brosnan Kratschmer (after marriage) |
Occupation(s) | designer, businesswoman |
Awards | Neiman-Marcus Fashion Award (1966) |
Mary Brosnan was born in 1906 in New York. She attended the Sacred Heart Convent school and studied art at the National Academy of Design school.[1]
Brosnan was portrait painter by training. During the Great Depression, she worked as a window dresser, and when the need arose for a more glamorous mannequin, she created one.[2] She and sculptor Kay Sullivan founded Mary Brosnan Inc., in 1941, providing American-made mannequins to stores during World War II, when European mannequins were difficult to import. Brosnan moved her manufacturing from Manhattan[3] to Long Island in 1947.[4] Also in 1947, her company acquired a patent for a self-standing mannequin, requiring no external stand.[5] Her 1948 mannequins became associated with the "New Look" of Christian Dior, because they were well-matched in proportions (broad shoulders, slim hips), and Brosnan's mannequins often used in Dior window displays.[6]
Brosnan's business was a success, and she was described as one of the "top American businesswomen" in a 1958 profile.[2] In 1962, Mary Brosnan Inc., a division of D. G. Williams,[7] occupied a 35,000 square-foot plant in Long Island City, with sculptors' studios, casting rooms, drying ovens and other facilities.[8] In 1964 the factory was producing 150-200 mannequins a week. "I often wonder where the old mannequins end up," Brosnan mused in an interview that year. "Sometimes I imagine there's a big desert somewhere out in Arizona, where they are piled up like used cars."[9]
Brosnan won the Neiman-Marcus Fashion Award in 1966. "She is the country's most eminent sculptress of the mannequins seen in store windows," explained one report about the award.[10][11] In 1967 she made the mannequins for a show titled "The Art of Fashion" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[12] Brosnan retired after 1973.[13]
In 1956,[2] Mary Brosnan married a Vienna-born importer, Robert Kratschmer.[1] She died January 20, 1988, aged 81 years, from cancer, in New York.[14][15]