Speed skier C.B. Vaughn (above) went on to create his eponymous skiwear line. Sandra Heath models Bogner’s first stretch pants (right top), Jake Carpenter, circa 1983, dressed to kill in early Burton wear. Today, Ibex (below) continues Vermont’s knitting heritage.
of Stowe was a success. Ann could not keep up with the demand on her own so she negotiated with New York retail giant Lord & Taylor to take over production and distribution of her designs. Ann also helped support herself and her family during the war by using her flying skills to train war pilots. In 1947, Ann married Vernon Taylor, Jr. and gave up her ski clothing business to be a wife and mother. She would stay involved in fashion, though, modelling for some of the world’s most famous designers. In 1967, Harper’s Bazaar selected her as one of the “One Hundred Great Beauties of the World.” Not all Vermonters saw skiwear in the high fashion sense of Bogner and Ann Cooke. Enter Charles Bird Vaughan, better known as C. B. Vaughan. Vaughan grew up in Manchester, Vt., where his parents ran an inn. He loved to ski and he loved to ski fast. After racing for Vermont Academy, C.B. earned a scholarship to St. Lawrence University where he would become captain of the ski team and a member of the United States Ski Team.While skiing collegiately, C.B. would meet another college ski racer who liked to go fast, Dick Dorworth. Together they trained for the 1963 world speed skiing competition held in Portillo, Chile. Both men would set a new record of 106.5 miles-per-hour. By 1969, C.B.’s racing career was on the wane, but he wanted to stay in the ski business. He saw an opportunity in skiwear. In his own words: “Skiing was very chi-chi, and chic was not appealing to me. I was interested in bringing hard-core, traditional, classic, functional skiwear into the marketplace. I couldn’t accept that just because I was a kid from Vermont, I couldn’t do it.’’ Vaughan’s first product was the “Super Pant,” which was an insulated warm-up that zipped on over stretch pants. Racers loved them and the general skier population followed suit. Vaughan and his then-wife Roxanne designed the pants and drove around Vermont selling them out of their car. Later, came an entire line, including his classic high-collared jackets. Initially Vaughan had other companies make the clothes, but when they began to steal his ideas, Vaughan decided to manufacture the clothing himself. The first CB Sports plant was located in an old mill in Bennington and at its peak CB Sports had four plants in Vermont and New York and employed about 500 people. In 1982, People magazine wrote: “The CB logo has become the lift-line equivalent of the Lacoste alligator.” Manchester became a hotbed for skiwear entrepreneurs and provided a wonderful convergence of creativitiy. In 1979, Manchester Center’s Tom and Anne Smith founded Overdrive Sportswear Ltd. In 1980, local Poppy Gall started a knit sweater and hat company called Mountain Ladies and Ewe, which popularized ear flaps on knit hats.Gall would later go on to co-found the Isis brand of women’s skiwear that combined serious mountaineering function with flattering fit. She now designs the Darn Tough line for Cabot Hosiery, the Northfield company that
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makes socks so tough they come with a guarantee. Jake Burton Carpenter, also originally of Manchester, was a driving force behind the new sport of snowboarding. Snowboarding came with its own sense of fashion so Jake looked to the locals to provide the first snowboarding wear under the Burton name. CB Sports provided the jackets, Overdrive made the first Burton pants, and Poppy Gall provided hats. Today, with a retail outlet at its headquarters in Burlington, Burton has gone on to be a major player in sportswear. According to Snowsports Industries of America data, Burton was third in dollar sales of skiwear behind Spyder and North Face in 2014. Thanks to the heritage, dozens of other national skiwear brands now call Vermont home, including Ibex, maker of wool outdoor apparel, Turtle Fur, Skida hats, and many more. These are some of the stories captured in “Slope Style: Fashion on Snow,” at the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum in Stowe. Plan a visit during foliage season to help get stoked for winter. Retro VT columnist Greg Morrill is the author of Retro-Ski, A Nostalgic Look Back at Skiing and writes for The Stowe Reporter. Follow his blog at retro-skiing.com
Clockwise from top left, photos couresty of C.B. Vaughn, Sandra Heath. Burton, Ibex
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