Wayne Rogers (1935-2023) was a women’s sportswear designer with enormous popularity in the 1970s. Born in Beverly Hills and Oxford educated, he worked as an engineer prior to embarking on a fashion career in the mid-1960s.
He got his start in fashion working as a salesman for Rudi Gernreich, then went on to design for a slew of trendy, juniors-oriented labels prior to launching his own label in 1970. He innovated many of his own fabrics and hand-painted many of his own designs, which were then screened in Japan. By the mid-70s his line of sleek, coordinated separates could be found in all the better department stores. He later added both children’s sportswear and men’s shirts to his offerings.
Rogers retired in the mid-1980s to work in real estate in Florida, but moved back to New York in 1992, where he had a short-lived comeback with a line of silk and Lycra spandex ribbed separates he created under his name and trademarked as Recoverib.
Written by Ranch Queen Vintage
