Bernadine Morris, Veteran Observer of Fashion, Dies at 92

Bernadine Morris, who demystified women’s fashion for decades as a New York Times critic, died on Jan. 12 in the Bronx. She was 92.

Her death, at a nursing home, was confirmed by her daughter, Cara Michelle Morris.

Morris began her career as what she described as “either the cheap dress editor or corset editor” of Women’s Wear Daily, the trade newspaper.

In 1963, on her 38th birthday, she got a job with, and through, The New York Times — answering a help-wanted advertisement in the newspaper for a fashion reporter.

More than 4,000 bylines later, she retired as the newspaper’s chief fashion writer in 1995 after advancing fashion coverage to a stand-alone Styles of The Times section, begun in 1992, from what had quaintly been called “Women’s News.” Several of her articles appeared on the newspaper’s front page.

Morris won the Medal of the City of Paris in 1985 and an award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1987. But she never overstated the impact of her criticism.

“The theater critic of The New York Times I do believe wields power,” she was quoted as saying in Nicholas Coleridge’s book “The Fashion Conspiracy” (1988). “But not the fashion editor. It’s too diffuse. The most I can do, if I’m really enthusiastic, is get a buyer to go see the collection.”

Many designers might have disagreed. They hung on her every printed word as she roamed through Europe and the United States, sometimes covering four fashion shows a day for two weeks and also choosing the illustrations (by Antonio Lopez and Maning Obregon, among others) and photographs (by Don Hogan Charles, Bill Cunningham and others) that would accompany her articles and reviews.

In 1970, she recalled in a 2003 review of Michael Gross’ “Genuine Authentic: The Real Life of Ralph Lauren” on the fashion website lookonline.com, Bloomingdale’s opened its Polo Shop, which featured Ralph Lauren’s radical four-inch-wide ties. It was the first time the store had sponsored a name designer in its men’s department.

“Marvin Traub, the head of Bloomingdale’s, had invited me to his office to see the revolutionary work of a new menswear designer, which was entirely different from what conservative, traditional-minded men were wearing,” she wrote. “The ties were an instant success.”

Her fashion reviews rarely equivocated.

In 1982, when Chanel tinkered with its classic suit, Morris concluded: “Quiet, unassuming clothes have been transformed into fairly arrogant styles. The Chanel look has been vulgarized.”

“But,” she added, “not everyone is troubled by it.”

Morris was something of a trendsetter herself — she wore patterned stockings before they were fashionable — but she typically favored practical, unpretentious sportswear, including Kimberly knits and dresses by Ellen Brooke.

Morris wrote several books, including “The Fashion Makers” (1978) and “Scaasi: A Cut Above” (1996).

Bernadine Taub was born on June 10, 1925, in Harlem. She graduated from Hunter College in the Bronx in 1945 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. While working at Millinery Research, a fashion weekly, she earned a master’s in English from New York University.

Before joining The Times, she worked at the magazine Fashion Trades and at The New York Journal-American.

Morris gravitated to fashion coverage because it was among the relatively few reporting specialties that welcomed women.

She married Jesse Morris, a businessman who had sold locomotives and became the director of financial services at the American Natural Soda Ash Corp. He died in 2011. In addition to their daughter, she is survived by their son, Michael, and two granddaughters.