Vera Neumann
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Vera Neumann (1907–1993) was an American artist and textile entrepreneur who became one of the most prolific and successful scarf designers of the twentieth century. She was among the most successful female design entrepreneurs of the 20th century and an originator of the American lifestyle brand, producing an iconic line of women's scarves all signed with a cursive "Vera" and stamped with a ladybug, as well as thousands of textile patterns based on her drawings, paintings, and collages. Her entrepreneurial career took shape after she married George Neumann, whose family background was in textiles; together they founded the company Printex, initially run out of their small apartment. With World War II underway, dwindling linen supplies led her to army surplus parachute silk, an event which marked the beginning of her scarf business.
She kept her signature on art transferred to the scarves, creating the first signature scarf in history, and "Vera scarves" quickly became popular, putting her on first-name terms with well-known women around the country. She was remarkably prolific, producing as many as 500 paintings a year at her peak, working in a distinctive sumi-e ink painting style that gave her bold, colorful, graphic designs their signature loose, brushy quality. Over her lifetime she copyrighted more than 8,000 designs, and her handwritten "Vera" signature paired with a ladybug remains highly sought after today. Her work expanded from scarves into household linens and clothing, and pieces bearing her signature can be dated by small changes in the mark over the decades—early examples were signed in lowercase without a copyright symbol, while designs from the 1960s onward feature the capitalized signature, copyright mark, and ladybug motif, details collectors use to place a given piece within her long and prolific career.
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