Lilli Wolff Collection

Lilli Wolff (1896-1983) was a costume and fashion designer whose career spanned costume and custom fashion design in Germany, New York, and Dallas. Wolff began her career in Köln (Cologne), Germany, running a fashion studio from 1921 until 1938, when Aryanization laws forbid Jewish people from business ownership. She then moved to Berlin, then to Vienna, Austria, in 1940, both times to pursue work in theater costuming. After receiving a deportation order in 1941, she went into hiding in friend Dorthea Neff’s apartment for four years. In 1947, she immigrated to the United States, first working in New York and later moving to Dallas. In 1958, she sponsored the immigration of Mati Driessen (1910-1990) and her son Klaus. She had previously worked with Mati Driessen, who in Dallas served as the dressmaker who transformed Wolff’s sketches into material reality and shared a personal relationship with the designer. Together, Wolff and Mati Driessen created custom dresses for Texan society women, which were often worn to cultural events and custom created for debutante, Maifest, and cultural events.

About the Collection

This collection of materials – primarily original sketches and a photo album with studio images of gowns designed by Wolff – were gifted to the Texas Fashion Collection by Klaus Driessen. They primarily represent Wolff’s ideas for custom designs for individuals and on themes dictated by specific cultural events during her active period in Dallas, from approximately 1958 through the early 1970s. Several sketches are accompanied by fabric swatches, suggesting the garments were fabricated after the sketch was approved by a client.

About the Digital Collection

Digitized materials represent the majority of the first set of sketches gifted by Klaus Driessen, which are complemented by another cache of less developed sketches gifted by him in 2022. Additionally, the TFC’s holdings include many bespoke garments designed by Wolff and fabricated by Mati Driessen, representing their shared work in Dallas.