Cynthia Rowley is an American fashion designer based in the Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1988. Rowley was kicked out of her junior year art show at SAIC because her use of wings in her design. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Rowley said that Marshall Field's had bought her first collection while she was still a student at SAIC.