Who was Wilson Folmar, and why have I spent nearly two years putting his story together? 1. He was a fashion designer in New York during my favorite decades of fashion. 2. He designed at the top of his field, right from the start. 3. I had access to his clothes as a teenager, borrowed from my stylish grandmother's closet. 4. He was my great-uncle. Wilson Folmar's design label closed in 1972, and he passed away in 1975. Every so often a vintage fashion influencer will find a cool outfit with his name on the tag, but there is not much biographical information about him on the internet. Thanks to the digitization of newspapers and trade magazines and some lovingly kept family scrapbooks, however, I have been able to piece together a timeline that reads like a fairy tale come true, and I've been able to add letters, photos, clippings, and interviews with people who remember him. Wilson Bibb Folmar was born in Troy, Alabama in 1911. Just as the Great Depression ...
Finding Wilson Folmar
A story of researching American fashion designer Wilson Folmar