On December 4

On this day in ...
... 1927 (85 years ago today), Gae Aulenti (left) was born in Friuli, a region in the far northeast corner of Italy. She earned an architecture degree from Milan Polytechnic University in 1953, and then worked worked at an Italian design magazine. After earning a doctorate, she taught architecture in Venice and in Milan, and won fame for designs of public spaces throughout the world; for example, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Contemporary Art Gallery at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Palazzo Grassi in Venice, and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. One of a very few noted women architects in Italy, Aulenti died just a few weeks ago, on November 1, in Milan. (photo credit) A quote from her New York Times obituary gives a window into her fierce independence:

'I don’t like to dress alla moda. The moment it’s loudly announced that red is fashion, I stop wearing red. I want to dress in green.'

(Prior December 4 posts are here, here, here, here, and here.)

On November 23

On this day in ...

(credit)

... 2002 (10 years ago today), an attempt to bring the glitz of the Miss World beauty pageant to Nigeria's capital, Abuja, ended after extensive rioting by Muslim youths opposed to the show left more than 100 people dead and 500 injured," according to the BBC. Before demonstrations ended, more than 200 persons died. Pageant plans also had irked campaigners against the stoning sentence levied against Amina Lawal, was cancelled. A woman from Turkey would be crowned Miss World 2 weeks later, in London.

(Prior November 23 posts are here, here, here, here, and here.)

On October 15

On this day in ...
... 1860, 11-year-old Grace Bedell wrote these bold words in a letter to the Republican Presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln:

Grace Bedell

'My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture. I hope you wont think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are… I have got four brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you. You would look a great deal better for your face is so thin… All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President.'

Lincoln took her advice and won the election. He made a point of stopping his inaugural train – which had begun its D.C.-bound journey in Springfield, Illinois –  in Grace's hometown of Westfield, in Chautauqua County in upstate New York, in order to thank the girl for her advice. Those of us who've attended the annual International Humanitarian Dialogs in the county will recall that a statue in Westfield commemorates the Bedell-Lincoln meeting.

(Prior October 15 posts are here, here, here, here, and here.)

Grace Kanode: 'Local Portia' at the Tokyo Tribunal

(credit)

(Part 1 of a 2-part series; Part 2 is here)

When the Washington Post ran an article in 1939 announcing the second wedding of D.C. socialite and lawyer Grace Kanode Vickers to Col. Paul Llewellyn, it was titled, “Making Marriage Her Career.”  Luckily, the prediction was false.
Six years later, Kanode began work as an assistant prosecutor at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo (right).
The IMFTE was the second international war crimes tribunal. It was founded in 1946, shortly after the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, in the wake of the mass atrocities witnessed during the Second World War.  Over two years, the Tokyo Tribunal tried twenty-eight Japanese leaders for crimes of war.
Although the full scope of Kanode’s specific contributions to the tribunal remains unclear, she holds the distinction of being the first woman prosecutor to appear before an international military tribunal.
When I first learned of Kanode’s work as the first woman prosecutor at Tokyo via a footnote that referenced her, I became intrigued by her story. What, I wondered, convinced a young lawyer to relocate to postwar occupied Japan in 1946 to try war criminals? Out of curiosity to know more about her undocumented accomplishments, and with a penchant for historical research, I began to research her life and career.
Although this research may raise more questions than it answers, my posting today shares what I have learned thus far about Kanode’s career, mostly from archives not available online. I do so in the hope that more discoveries are soon to follow.

Early career in law
A 1931 graduate of the National University Law School (now George Washington University Law School), Kanode distinguished herself through leadership positions while a student. During her time there, she was elected president of the Cy Pres Club, the oldest and largest women’s club in the university.  After graduating, she served as law clerk to Chief Justice Alfred Adams Wheat of the U.S. District Court in D.C., and later worked with the law firm of former Secretary of State Robert Lansing.
She was also sartorially inclined, according to news media.  A 1934 Washington Post article on women attorneys and fashion described Kanode as an “aide to Chief Justice Wheat,” who “has sparkle and dash and wears clothes as they should be worn.”
As a representative of the Women’s Bar Association, Kanode attended the International Congress of Comparative Law in The Hague the summer of 1936. Upon returning, she remarked:

'[I]t was gratifying to note the courtesy and esteem for women in the profession among the men in Paris and London with respect to the use of association libraries and membership.'

She also served as a delegate on behalf of women lawyers at the International Law Conference in Santiago, Chile.  Soon thereafter, in December 1945, she relocated to Japan for eight months to serve as part of the prosecution team in Tokyo.

Lawyers' fashion debate exposes inequities in India

(My thanks to IntLawGrrls for the opportunity to contribute this introductory post)

Woman in a kurta, center; at right, in a sari ((c) Kelly Wegel)

NEW DELHI – I am here for 5 weeks, interning at Priti Suri and Associates, a small corporate law firm. I draft memos, conduct research for clients and for presentations, and work on a variety of projects involving American and Indian companies. I also sweat, eat, sweat, take pictures, and sweat. The high my first week here was about 42 degrees Celsius, or 107-108 Fahrenheit.
Thankfully, a friend introduced me to kurtas and kurtis, long, breathable, tunics worn with leggings. They are perfect for the Delhi heat, since they absorb all the sweat, come in many colors and patterns, and look great on people of all sizes.
The kurtas, along with the more formal saris, are also a point of contention among people here.
I encountered the topic at conference sponsored by SOWL, the Society of Women Lawyers-India, earlier this month. As described in this article, a panel topic was “Innovative Strategies for the Retention of Women Lawyers,” with the focus on maternity leave and Indian society’s traditional notions of the woman as the primary caregiver. These notions clash with the Western notions of a lawyer as a working machine.
The debate quickly turned to clothing, however.
Some lawyers, mostly women in their 50s and 60s, voiced criticism over young women’s makeup choices in court. If you wear too much, it distracts from your arguments, they said. Men and the judge will think you are only looking for a husband, or they will think you would rather spend time on your appearance than on your clients. (There has been no jury system in India since 1960, but litigators appear before a judge in a formal court setting.)

(credit)

The younger women shot back – why does it matter? All lawyers have to wear calf-length black gowns over their clothes in court anyway, along with a white bib. We respect those rules. We are smart, talented, win cases, and bill at $500 an hour, why judge us on anything else?
Because that’s the way it is, the older women explained. Things won’t change anytime soon, and we have worked hard to get what little ground we have, don’t lose it by being frivolous. One woman said loudly:

'If women don’t have a sari or long pants on under the gown, then the gown shows their ankles, and it looks like they have nothing on underneath.'

I was floored. Ankles? I knew before coming here that India had a strong British influence, but I didn’t expect it to be so Victorian.
The older women’s opinions on Western attire and makeup come not just from the traditions in India, but also from the knowledge, and maybe even experience, of the sexual violence and harassment that is prevalent here.

'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

'[I]f one heard that the government treated identical women's products differently from men's products, one might think it unfair. One might even wonder if this difference in treatment gives rise to a problem under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.'

-- So begins Brooklyn Law Professor Claire R. Kelly, in an ASIL Insight that explains why "one's" assumptions probably will prove wrong: federal courts tend to require precise evidence of intentional sex discrimination, and tend not to find it. As Kelly explains, the latest court to join this trend is the Court of International Trade, in its judgment in Rack Room Shoes v. United States (Feb. 15, 2102).

On November 22

On this day in ...
... 2001 (10 years ago today), Mary Kay Ash (left) died at age 83 at her home in Dallas, Texas. She'd been ill for several years, having suffered a stroke in 1996. (photo credit) Ash was known to the world as "Mary Kay," the name and face of a cosmetics company she founded with a $5,000 investment, when she was a 45-year-old divorced mother of 3. She turned it into a "billion-dollar beauty empire." Known for her fondness and ostentatious display of the color pink, she once explained her success thus:

'I was middle-aged, had varicose veins and I didn't have time to fool around. Have you heard the definition of a woman's needs? From 14 to 40, she needs good looks, from 40 to 60, she needs personality, and I'm here to tell you that after 60, she needs cash.'

(Prior November 22 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

ICC Dress Code & Other Developments

Earlier this month, the so-called "Ocampo Six" (at left, photo credit, and depicted on their own facebook page) made their initial appearances before the International Criminal Court. See our prior coverage here and here about the opening by the ICC prosecutor of an investigation into the situation in post-election Kenya.
At this hearing (right, photo credit), Pre-Trial Chamber II set the date of the hearing on the confirmation of charges for September 1, 2011.
Kenya has challenged the admissibility of the cases in accordance with Article 19 of the ICC Statute. The Application on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Kenya pursuant to Article 19 of the ICC Statute is available here. The government argues that the August 2010 constitution envisions important judicial reforms (such as the appointment of a public prosecutor independent from the Attorney-General) that will be put in place in September 2011. These reforms, it is argued, will enable Kenyan national courts to prosecute post-election violence cases, including those now pending before the ICC. The government makes an impassioned plea to respect the principle of complementarity and give the country time to "get its house in order." Written observations on the petition by the prosecutor, defense, and Office of Public Council are due this week (on April 28, 2011). Kenya has also requested the assistance of the Court pursuant to Article 93(10) of the ICC Statute in its internal investigations into post-election violence.
At the close of the initial appearance hearing, the presiding judge, Ekaterina Trendafilova (Bulgaria, above right), made the suggestions that counsel not wear wigs in the courtroom. (credit for photo at left of Australian barrister Margaret Battye) Trendafilova apparently said:

This is not the dress code of this institution ... In this quite warm weather maybe it will be more convenient to be without wigs.

Hear, hear!

On January 9

On this day in ...

... 1886 (125 years ago today), Ida Kaganovich was born in the city of Minsk, then in Russia, now, Belarus. As an 18-year-old she emigrated to be with her fiancé, and the couple married a few years after she arrived in the United States. Ida Rosenthal (far left), who "held socialist ideals and believed in women's rights," bought herself a sewing machine and began working independently as a seamstress. Eventually she and Enid Bisset opened a Manhattan dress shop; together, they invented a bandeau-with-cups, called a brassiere, that became the foundational garment of their Maidenform shapewear empire. (credit for PBS collage of photo of Rosenthal courtesy of Elizabeth Coleman, and of bra courtesy of WGBH) Outliving both her husband and her business partner, Rosenthal "died of pneumonia in 1973," in New York City," leaving the multimillion dollar family company to her daughter, Beatrice."

(Prior January 9 posts are here, here, and here.)

'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

MODERATOR 1: Okay. Which designers do you prefer?
SECRETARY CLINTON: What designers of clothes?
MODERATOR 1: Yes.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Would you ever ask a man that question? (Laughter.) (Applause.)
MODERATOR 1: Probably not. Probably not. (Applause.)

-- Interview with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday, at KTR Studio (above) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Full transcript and photo credit here.

MAC/Rodarte Juárez debacle: How fashion & makeup bloggers raised corporate & public human rights awareness

(IntLawGrrls is delighted to welcome back alumna M.C. Sungaila, who contributes this guest post)

Less than a month after they took part in a U.N. summit, two U.S. companies tested the limits of social responsibility and were brought to task by fashion and makeup bloggers -- not the United Nations.
About 7,000 businesses from more than 135 countries took part in a June U.N. Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York City. The Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate citizenship initiative. The Compact’s Women’s Empowerment Principles, launched this past International Women’s Day, offer guidance to companies on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace, and community in accordance with international human rights principles.
Global Compact signatories include major global corporations across a range of industries: Deloitte, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Bank of America, Cisco, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Pepsico, Microsoft, Monsanto, and Royal Dutch Shell, for example.
The Global Compact’s Ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption are derived from U.N. human rights documents. The first principle of the Global Compact is respecting and supporting human rights. The first principle notes that corporate responsibility to respect human rights exists independently of a state’s responsibility to do so and advises that a corporation’s “good works” in one area cannot excuse its infringement of human rights in another. The Compact’s Women’s Empowerment Principles name as priorities promoting equality through community initiatives and advocacy and establishing high-level corporate leadership around gender equality.
But it was the fashion and makeup blogosphere that took two companies, MAC Cosmetics and Rodarte, to task.
► MAC Cosmetics has historically shown profound awareness around social issues. The MAC AIDS Fund, established in 1994, has raised $139 million through the sale of its VIVA GLAM lipstick and lipgloss, from which 100% of sales are donated to fight HIV/AIDS.
► Fashion house Rodarte, founded by California-born sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy, is a relative newcomer to the fashion scene, prized for its artsy approach.
For Fall 2010, MAC and Rodarte teamed up for a fashion collection and integrated makeup line. According to the Mulleavy sisters, the collection was inspired by their travels across Texas' landscape en route to the art town of Marfa, and the imagined “lines of women workers making their way to factory jobs in the middle of the night” across the border in Juarez, Mexico. (above left; photo credit)
The nail polish, lipstick, and other makeup bore names such as “Juarez,” “Bordertown,” “Factory,” “Ghost Town,” “Sleepwalker,” and “Quinceanera.”
The presentation of the Rodarte clothing collection at the Fall fashion shows – during which the models wore the accompanying MAC makeup line – featured a parade of pale-faced models wearing tattered white lace dresses, looking like ghostly brides. Style.com, commenting on the show, noted that the models could be seen as “the ghosts of the victims of Juarez’s drug wars.” (below right; photo credit)
(I have posted on killings and disappearances of women in Juárez; other IntLawGrrls' posts on the tragedy are here and here.)
MAC and Rodarte sent out press releases for the Fall collection to the fashion and makeup media, including bloggers, in mid-summer. The reaction from beauty bloggers was immediately negative and visceral. MAC and Rodarte appeared to be exploiting, romanticizing – or, perhaps even worse, to be ignorant of – the decades of unsolved killings of hundreds of women and girls in Juarez, many of whom had migrated to the city to work in the factories for minimal wages.
The beauty bloggers decried the collection and called for MAC and Rodarte to take action. As Politics Daily reported:

[B]eauty bloggers who were given advance press kits and samples for the fashion line lashed out at MAC/Rodarte for romanticizing the lives of women fraught with violence and poverty.
Jessica Wakeman of The Frisky called the collection "tasteless" and asked, "What's next, a lipstick called Bergen-Belsen?"

After more than a hundred blogs were found to have objected and called for boycotts, MAC/Rodarte apologizeed and promised to give $100,000 to an appropriate nonprofit. Politics Daily continued:
Newly politicized, beauty and fashion writers began calling for the two companies to donate the entirety of their profits from the collection to women and girls in Juarez.
Within weeks, Rodarte agreed

to turn over its global profits from the sale of the MAC/Rodarte collection to a new initiative that will provide grants to local and international organizations that raise awareness and provide resources for women and girls in Juarez.

But that is not the end of the story. The bloggers’ efforts to raise the companies’ social awareness around the plight of women and girls in Juárez ended in the companies pulling the makeup collection. The companies still pledged to donate all of the projected global profits from the sale of the collection to benefit women and girls in Juárez.
The lessons from this debacle?
► For MAC and Rodarte: that some “due diligence” about the social realities surrounding the inspiration for their collections should be done prior to releasing them, and that social responsibility in one arena does not excuse lack of social awareness in another.
► For individual citizens: that we each have the power to effect change. For those involved in human rights work: that sometimes change and awareness about abuses can come from unexpected, everyday sources.

On July 2

On this day in ...
... 1747 (though this site puts her birth at 1741), a daughter was born to "a family of small means" in Abbeville, Picardie, France. As Rose Bertin (left), she would become "the first celebrated French fashion designer." Following an apprenticeship she opened her own clothing shop on the Rue St. Honoré, where she catered to Versailles nobility and courtesans. Eventually Bertin would furnish millinery and garments -- most notably, extravagantly coiffed wigs -- to the Austria-born princess Marie Antoinette. Although the latter would die by guillotine, a queen deposed by the French Revolution, Bertin survived by moving her business to London for a time. She died in 1813 in Epinay sur Seine. (image credit)

(Prior July 2 posts are here, here, and here.)

Read On!: "The First (Black) Lady"

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures ... to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and wome, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women....
-- Article 5, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

Stereotypes about Black women rarely involve images of political power or social influence. I’ve been reflecting on this while reading an intriguing article by Verna Williams (below left), Professor of Law, and Co-Director of the Law and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. (Photo, below left). The essay, titled “The First (Black) Lady,” explores media and popular images of Michelle Obama (above), First Lady of the United States of America. (photo credit)
The piece is part of a University of Denver Law Review special issue on “Obama Phenomena.” Williams argues "that the gender and racial norms contributing to the traditional notion of First Lady exemplify the intertwined nature of racism and sexism, and particularly how they have been used to justify Black subordination.” It also explores the “transformative potential” of Mrs. Obama’s presence in this role. (Williams notes that Obama prefers the honorific “Mrs.”).

Fashioning a First Lady?
We’ve all heard more than enough about the faux “fashionista wars” between Mrs. Obama and France's First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (a professional fashion model). Still, it is difficult not to be pleased by the cross-cultural acknowledgements of physical health, discipline, beauty, and grace in a prominent African-American woman. Stereotypes about Black women have been so often thoroughly derogatory. The fact that a woman of color could be a global trend-setter is too rare a thing to reject.
Television now even embraces at least one “Black woman as fashion trendsetter” in the post-feminist person of fictional (and thoroughly ruthless) fashion power broker “Wilhelmina Slater” (played by actor Vanessa L. Williams on “Ugly Betty”). But fashion trendsetting is only one form of power—and a particularly gendered one.
Michelle Obama was an attorney for a multinational law firm and an administrator for a major university medical center. She is a committed mother and family member. She has strong ideas about health, education, the rights of women workers, and the work/family balance. (See White House profile here.) That's as it should be. We are, after all, approaching the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (and still awaiting ratification by the United States).

Who are we looking for?
As Verna Williams notes, however, we in the U.S. and outside it remain profoundly ambivalent about the role(s) of First Ladies. They are unelected and therefore should not exercise presidential powers. Yet they are often the closest advisers to presidents. They have always brought their own intellectual, political, social, and personal perspectives to Washington and beyond. The first UN Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Eleanor Roosevelt (below right) is a case in point, given her domestic and international advocacy. (photo credit) (Click here for posts by Beth Van Schaack and other IntLawGrrls on Ms. Roosevelt.) Historians reveal that the subtle or overt influence of First Ladies on presidential decision-making stretches back to the nation's founding and did not end with now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (left) and former First Lady Laura Bush.
Their every move is scrutinized, whether it is in how they raise their children or what they said in a speech on health insurance reform. They represent the United States as cultural leaders in the art they select for the White House. They are expected to be “diplomats” by hosting foreign officials; they can cause an “international incident” with remarks at a state dinner abroad. The planting of a vegetable garden or a rose garden can cause a run on local plant nurseries. According to Williams,

These responsibilities, substantive and stylistic in nature, also carry the mark of traditional domesticity, and the gendered expectations that comprise it. Namely, the primary focus of the First Lady’s role is on the private sphere—that is, the home and family. Paramount among her duties is supporting her spouse at home so that he may succeed in the public sphere.

"Playing" herself
For First Ladies, the simplest gestures are fraught with social, cultural, and economic meanings. For example, many African-American observers, including me, found the sight of Michelle Obama jumping “double-dutch” (a complicated form of rope-jumping) at a White House "Healthy Kids Fair" to be a wonderful moment. None of us thought we’d ever see what we might have thought of as a Black "girls' game” being played at the White House. That game is now considered a sport, and requires significant physical stamina, balance, hand-eye coordination, and skill to perfect. (A virtuoso performance at the World Double-Dutch Championship is linked here.) Such symbols indicate that positive African-American and historically gender-linked traditions can represent an “American” tradition as well.
The more significant transformative potential of this “First Black Lady” status is yet to be seen (as will the potential of a future first “First Gentleman”). But I suspect it will be fulfilled by observers of the White House, not those inside it. It will be evident when we are prepared to assess presidential partners for who they are, not who we imagine them to be.
Thanks to Alexis Smith for her research assistance.

On October 24

On this day in ...
... 1939 (70 years ago today), the 1st nylons went on sale to the public at 6 stores in Wilmington, Delaware, home of the DuPont company that had invented the synthetic nylon fiber a few years earlier. "Within a few hours, the stores' supplies of nylon stockings were sold out -- even though they were supposed to last through the end of the year." Demand remained strong when the product went on sale nationwide the following year, "although many women were surprised to discover that even stockings made from a material as 'strong as steel' could still run like conventional silk stockings." (credit for photo captioned "The coveted nylon stockings were proudly put on right on the street after purchasing them.")

(Prior October 24 posts are here and here.)

Fashion and Intellect

As a senior partner of Freshfields (New York), I was sorry to see the Daily Mail/Marie Claire article on "Freshfields and fashion" rerun in this IntLawGrrls post. The press article -- seriously misreported and sensationally illustrated with a photo of "killer stilettos" -- would not warrant attention, but for its being read by some to suggest Freshfields is discriminating against women by mandating a fashion style to gain a competitive edge in the currently difficult legal market.

The facts:

Those familiar with the English legal system will recognize that the firm takes in large classes of "trainee" lawyers two times a year, most of them straight from university. As part of their intensive orientation, the trainees are offered a short session -- the group together, men and women -- on how to dress professionally. The focus is on how to make the transition from university dress to business attire, especially as firm lawyers in London must wear business suits every day. According to trainees and former trainees with whom I've spoken, what they most remember about the session is learning -- for the first time -- how quickly their intellectual skills will be judged or misjudged by their physical appearance. Although the London press has run unbalanced stories over the years, the trainees find the session professionally valuable and ask that the option be continued.

Being surprised at how often I have to advise young lawyers -- women and men -- on appropriate dress for appearances in international courts and tribunals, as well as in the office day-to-day, I cannot disagree with the concept.

Given that Freshfields has an official dress code in London -- covering both women and men -- that discourages skirts "more than one inch above the knee" and open-toed shoes, stilettoed and mini-skirted lawyers must be a rare sight indeed in our London offices. (photo credit)

But such facts would not sell fashion magazines and tabloids. Nor would stories on the extraordinary intellect and achievements of our women (and men) lawyers.

Fashion Advice for Lawyers

According to the Daily Mail, and Marie Claire, the law firm of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has been advising its female associates to "embrace their femininity" by wearing stilettos and skirts to work. This advice is apparently part of its efforts to help its staff "project a professional image in the workplace."
PriceWaterhouse anyone?
Twenty years after the United States found that this kind of gender stereotyping amounted to workplace discrimination, things clearly haven't changed very much. In Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, United States Supreme Court found that the advice given the Anne Hopkins for how she might make partner, suggesting that she:

walk more femininely, talk more femininely, dress more femininely, wear make-up, have her hair styled, and wear jewelry

amounted to unlawful discrimination on the basis of her gender.
I wonder if Freshfields will add this bit of sage fashion advice as an appendix to the webpage where it touts the firm's committment to promoting equality and diversity.
Besides, why limit the advice only to the female associates? Surely male associates will also benefit from projecting a professional image through use of stilettos?


(update: see Jan. 9 response post here)

On July 5, ...

... 1996, Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. She gave birth naturally to 4 lambs before she contracted arthritis and was euthanized in 2003.
... 1946, 4 days after the United States began testing atomic weapons in the Bikini Atoll, Louis Reard introduced in Paris a skimpy 2-piece swimsuit he named le bikini. In his Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials, U.S. Prosecutor Telford Taylor made a particular mention of his 1st sight of the new item of couture -- noteworthy given the ongoing search by IntLawGrrl Diane Orentlicher [aka Beatrice] for the women lawyers who contributed to those trials.
... 1937, U.S. Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.) was born in New York City.