Helen Brockman collection

Helen Brockman was a fashion designer and professor whose work focused on pattern making for skirts and slacks. She taught at Kansas State University for nine years, and continued to publish after she retired with the Kansas State University Research Foundation.

Brockman was born in Palo, Iowa in 1902 to parents Levi Lewis and Ida Mae Ashworth. After obtaining her B.A from University of Iowa, she taught in Schenectady, New York for seven years. She moved to New York City and worked as a pattern designer during World War II. She also taught at New York City's Fashion Institute of Technology, and published The Theory of Fashion Design in 1965.

After retiring and leaving New York in 1968, she accepted a position at Kansas State University in the College of Human Ecology's Department of Clothing and Textiles teaching fashion design. In addition to her academic career, she served as a social host for visiting scholars at The Brockman House, which she established in 1990. She remained with the department until her second retirement in 1974.

Helen Brockman passed away in 2008, at the age of 105.