| Jeffrey Banks | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Birth Date: | 3 November 1955[1] |
| Birth Place: | Washington D.C. |
Jeffrey Banks (born November 3, 1955) is an American fashion designer and author, who has been described as a major black fashion maker.[2] [3]
Banks worked as a design assistant to Ralph Lauren (1971 to 1973) and Calvin Klein (1973 to 1976).[2] He has claimed credit for Klein's logo garments, stating that he had the logo from a press folder silkscreened onto the sleeve of a brown T-shirt as a present for Klein.[4] The gift was assumed by Barry K. Schwartz to be part of the upcoming line, and similar shirts formed the uniform for the front-of-house staff at Klein's next catwalk show, leading to the buyers asking to purchase them.[4]
After leaving Calvin Klein, Banks launched his own-name label in New York City in 1977, according to his official website,[5] although some sources state 1978.[2] By 1996, suits, shirts, eyewear and accessories from Jeffrey Banks Ltd. and Jeffrey Banks International were being sold worldwide with sales of about $20 million.[6]
As an author, Jeffrey Banks has co-authored three fashion books with Doria de La Chapelle for Rizzoli, including a 2007 book on tartan,[7] a 2011 book on the preppy style,[8] and a 2015 book on the milliner Patricia Underwood.[9] The second book led to Banks and de La Chapelle collaborating with Erica Lennard on Perry Ellis: An American Original, the first in-depth monograph on Banks's former friend and colleague, the designer Perry Ellis, published in 2013.[10] [11]