A man apart: up to the end, Geoffrey Beene proved why he was the most single-minded designer of his generation.(Fashion Flash)(Biography)

W, August, 2005 by Haskell, Robert

A few months before he died, Geoffrey Beene sat down with his old friend Helen O'Hagan, who was bringing him homemade creme caramel once a week, and said, "Helen, I'm going to really surprise people with what I do with my money"

There are a few ways of interpreting Beene's words, and certainly, when he died on September 28, 2004, after a three-year illness that he kept as private as he did so much else about his life, there was a lot to be surprised by For a designer whose high-minded clothing stood apart from what he viewed as the vulgarism of the retail world, Beene ...