Phyllis A. Tweel Collection on Bill Cunningham

Abstract

Phyllis A. Tweel is a former publicist, fashion columnist, and 1980s "It Girl." Tweel moved from West Virginia to New York City in 1966 in order to join the city's fashion and social scene. Tweel served as the fashion critic and gossip columnist for The Daily News Record, which earned her the reputation as "The Daily News Wrecker" for her writings. She later wrote a similar column for SoHo Weekly News. Tweel married musician Rodney Bentrup in 1979, and held her wedding reception at Studio 54. She enjoyed a decades-long friendship with New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham, whose work on focused on candid photography, street photography, and fashion. Cunningham maintained two long-running columns in the New York Times: "On the Street," focused on street fashion (often at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan), and "Evening Hours," documenting society fashion. The Phyllis A. Tweel Collection on Bill Cunningham (dated 1976-2015) consists of materials documenting the friendship and artistic collaboration between Tweel and Cunningham in the Manhattan fashion scene. Materials include correspondence (letters, postcards, greeting cards, and holiday cards) from Cunningham to Tweel documenting Cunningham's daily life, photographic inspirations, reviews of fashion shows, his workload at the New York Times, his reluctant move out of his rent-controlled apartment in the Carnegie Hall Hall building, and his reaction to the 2010 documentary Bill Cunningham New York. The collection also includes approximately 200 photographic prints taken by Cunningham (some of which are signed) with images of Tweel's that appeared in the New York Times, as well as images of Tweel's wedding. Other materials include advertisements, articles about Tweel or Cunningham, and newspaper clippings of Cunningham's "On the Street" feature, many of which contain images of Tweel, her husband, and their dog.