Weekends are perfect to stop, relax and browse through archives. Check out for example the collections of sketches and illustrations on the SPARC Digital Collection, a platform by the FIT Library's Special Collections and College Archives. On the site you will spot also sketches by Daren Pierce.
Born in 1923, Pierce studied at the Wolfe School of Costume Designing in Los Angeles in 1941, then joined the US armed forces, in Farragut, Idaho and at the Naval Training Station on Yerba Buena Island.
While serving in the Navy during WWII, Pierce continued to sketch as a hobby: he created womenswear collections that were never made and that included a variety of garments from day to evening and bridal wear in pencil, watercolor and marker. 
Some of his sketches were inspired by his muses – actress Greer Garson, soprano Lily Pons and singer, dancer and actress Lena Horne – and even signed by them as Pierce would present his sketches to the performers (the "Lakme" sketch was inspired by Lily Pons starring in the eponymous opera at the Metropolitan Opera House).
The shapes and silhouettes of Pierce's sketches revealed a passion for costume designer Adrian and textile designer Dorothy Liebes (Pierce would integrate some textile swatches of her hand-woven textiles in the sketches).
It was actually after giving his idol Dorothy Liebes a sketch inspired by her, that she hired him as a textile designer in 1945. Pierce then became known as an interior designer and worked in New York City for leading interior design firms, William Pahlmann and Associates.
In the 1960s Pierce was elected President of the American Institute of Decorators and opened in 1963 together with Inman Cook a specialty store for needlepoint designs, Woolworks, on Madison Avenue.
The shop was controversial as Pierce was challenging gender stereotypes by opening a needlepoint store, yet it was a complete hit especially with wealthy clients: Woolworks sold the equipment and yarns to make needlepoint works, but it received commissions by rich clients as well who wanted exclusive needlepoint pieces for their houses.
"Needlepoint is getting very popular again. I think all the rich ladies are giving up their analysts, and doing needlepoint, instead," stated a woman about Woolworks in an article published in 1974 on The New York Times.
Pierce, who died in 1984 in New York, co-authored volumes on the subjects of needlepoint and the art of mixed cocktails, among them "The Complete Martini Cookbook" and "Son of the Martini Cookbook" (with drawings by Edward Gorey), both considered as very rare (on eBay you may find the occasional copy around $300 or $400), and "The Pleasures of Needlepoint" with Inman Cook.
Pierce's fashion designs were classic '40s looks, often with sharp and boxy geometrical shoulders à la Mildred Pierce (check out the trio of day suits "Mia", "Olga" and "Nicolas"), creations that you may see in the most stylish noir films of the time.
His evening gowns were more glamorous, with details such ermine and sable pockets, a heart shaped bodice or a surrealist detail of a vintage phone, reminiscent of Salvador Dali for Schiaparelli's vintage telephone compact.
Pierce was also an art and architecture fan: one sketch showing a woman in a green wool suit with violet inset and orange braid trim and pompadour-style purple hat is entitled "His Name Was Frank Lloyd Wright"; another drawing of a model in a blue and purple color blocked suit, with a matching turban and purple glovesm is instead entitled "Picasso's Blue, period!", while the "Nanki Poo" sketch shows a yellow evening gown with an amorphous Surrealist-inspired color-blocking in black and pink.
Keep on browsing the SPARC Digital collection for further inspirations, ideas and intriguing discoveries.
