Estelle Grey Ashby (1911-1994) moved to New York City as a young woman to pursue fashion design, studying at the Traphagen School of Fashion. She met her future husband, Carl Ashby, while both were students at the Art Students League of New York, and they married in 1938. Ashby worked as a fashion designer throughout her career. Her work and papers, along with her husband's, are preserved in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum.