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Beene: Timeless fashion on review
VIENNA, Austria (CNN) -- United States designer Geoffrey Beene emptied his closets for "Through the Decades," a retrospective of his 40 years in fashion.
The show, which took place recently in Vienna, Austria, showed 10 ready-to-wear pieces from each decade. The items were different, he says, yet shared one trait: Each was timeless.
"They didn't seem to belong to any particular decade," he says. "One just sort of flowed into the other, so people had to sort of decide which decade was which.
"It was sort of fun seeing them, one after the other," Beene says. "And you really couldn't see any demarcation, which makes me sort of proud."
Comfort never out of style
Beene says he was careful to make sure hairdos, makeup and shoes would not date the clothes.
"Most of the girls wore their hair the same, and the shoes were classic shoes -- without being the horrors of the '60s or the horrors of the '90s -- so (their attire) all came off as very modern clothes."
Why have his styles remained popular? Beene credits his "fascination with sportswear and comfort" for his designs' success.
"I think that's what made the clothes look (fashionable) even today, because they move so beautifully and easily," he says. "All the way from the jumpsuits, which were first done in the '60s, until the last jumpsuits I've done in the '90s."
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CNN's Elsa Klensch looks at Geoffrey Beene's "Through the Decades" collection.
Medicine makes way for fashion
Beene, born in Haynesville, Louisiana, in 1927, was going to be a physician, but answered a different calling. He left Tulane University Medical School in New Orleans for a job in the display department at I. Magnin in Los Angeles.
In 1947, he moved to New York, where he studied fashion. He also spent three years studying in Paris before returning to New York in 1952. After gaining experience at ready-to-wear houses, Beene started his own company in 1963.
His first successes: high-waisted, braid-edged empire dresses and simple shifts. Beene also was one of the first designers to combine short skirts with long jackets.
At times Beene's designs are whimsical; on other occasions, shocking. His experiments with color hint to which decade an outfit belongs.
The '60s looks, Beene says, feature black-and-white patterns or graphic forms highlighted by shocking pink and chartreuse, the hallucinogenic colors of that period.
"The '70s were softer clothes and a little more muted," he says. "The '80s came on sort of gangbusters -- more decorative. The '90s were when I was deeply into ... minimalism and functionality."
CNN Style Correspondent Elsa Klensch contributed to this report.
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