Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton
Marc Jacobs was born in New York in 1960, the son of two theatrical agents. His father died when he was only 7 years old. He went to live with his grandmother, who taught him how to knit. He attended Parsons School of Design, and in his final year (1984) created a collection of handknit sweaters (made by his grandmother) which won him the Perry Ellis Golden Thimble award. He spent his formative years shuttling between school and Studio 54, the Manhattan Disco.After graduating, he designed under his own label for two years, creating irreverent take-offs of 60's hippie style clothing and versions of patchwork and gingham.
In 1984, he became the youngest designer ever to be awarded the Council of Fashion Designers of America's prize for new talent.
In 1988, he joined PERRY ELLIS where he became known for a youthful, witty style which showed confident use of colour and spare silhouettes. He created a red and white tablecloth check ensemble embroidered with black ants, and a Freudian 'slip' imprinted with Freud's face. He was also well-known for his 1992 'grunge' collection which in fact caused he and Perry Ellis to part company.
He left Perry Ellis in 1993, He went back todesigning under his own label. He favours sensuous fabrics such as angora, cashmere and mohair and will occasionally surprise with neon rubber separates and laminated sequined jeans. In 1997, he was voted Womenswear Designer of the Year by the CFDA.
In 1997, he won the design job at Louis Vuitton, the elegant French luggage maker. He has introduced modern pop and kisch into their sedate image. Stella Tennant, fashion model, said "Marc's shows are always fun to do - and I love his clothes."
He also makes what the New York Times calls his 'caviar clothes' for the up market women. Here Naomi Campbell is wearing powder grey cashmere vest and flat fronted trousers. Rich women in the 30's are attracted to his witty update of the Vuitton brand that has been carried by generations before them.
Robert Duffy is Jacobs business partner, who has worked with him from his earliest days at Perry Ellis. Louis Vuitton is owned by LVMH of Arnault Bernard, the same owner of Givenchy and Dior. LVMH appointed Jacobs to the helm of Vuitton giving him responsibility for launching the ready-to-wear collections, and adding new accessories to the existing lines.
Marc Jacobs has now moved to Paris, although he prefers working in his New York studio. His Paris studio is just steps away from the Louvre and Notre Dame Cathedral. He says "Paris is a splendid city but it lacks New York's energy, it has no youth culture."
Marc Jacobs is just the person to propel the 154 year old company into the future. Vuitton, an impeccable but rather conservative leather-goods house, is now one of the world's most sought-after fashion labels.
In the year 2000/2002, the city of New York decided to honour 24 American fashion designers by placing bronze plaques along the pavement of 7th Avenue, the great street of fashion in New York. This has been called the "FASHION WALK OF FAME." Marc Jacobs was one of those honoured with a plaque.
Article from Designer History
Labels: Designer, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs
Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce and Gabbana are arguably the most powerful and influential designers of our time. Their clients include some of the best dressed people in the world, such as the Beckhams, Madonna and Sophia Loren.Stefano Gabbana was born on 14th November 1962, in Venice, Italy. Domencio Dolce was born on 13th September 1958, in a small village in Sicily. Dolce studied fashion design in Sicily and gained experience in his parents businesses. Gabbana, however, studied graphic design and gained some work experience in fashion, as an assistant in an atelier in Milan, where the pair first met in 1980.
By 1982, they had started their first fashion consulting studio and, in 1985, they showed their first women’s collection in Milan, winning national acclaim.
The collection was mainly homemade, and consisted of instructed designs and complicated systems of fastenings. Inspirational figures for the collection included Italian actresses Sophia Loren and Anna Magnani.
Later signature designs would include corset dresses, gangster pinstripes and sexy black suits. However, it was a visit to Sicily at the end of the 1980s which was instrumental in emphasising their celebration of the curvaceous female form. The designing duo next tried their luck in Japan and signed an agreement with the Kashiyama group. In 1989 they opened their first boutique in Japan and two years later they were presenting their first men’s collection.
Dolce and Gabbana are now fundamentally known for wanting to make women look “fantastically sexy”. Many of their designs are adapted from the feminist-era, before being glamorised and modernised. They describe their style as “sweet and sharp” and “New Millennium cool”. They were once quoted as saying they are mostly concerned with creating the best, most flattering clothes and sparkling trends.
D&G began achieving long awaited awards in the 1990s and, in 1991, they were awarded the ‘Wollmark Award’ and ‘Best Fragrance of the Year’ in 1993. By the end of the 1990s it was reported that their sales were around $500 million per year. They have now become one of the world’s most successful ready-to-wear companies and are considered Hollywood’s number one choice of designer.
The couple currently reside in a 19th Century mini-villa in Milan, with an apartment next door.
Article from The Biography Channel
Labels: Designer, Dolce, Gabbana
Miuccia Prada for Prada
Miuccia Prada's grandfather, Mario, founded the family luxury leather goods company in Milan in 1913. In 1978, a reluctant Miuccia assumed the reins from her mother, after completing a PhD in Political Science.She was an unlikely successor, having spent the last five years studying and performing mime at Milan's Teatro Piccolo, being a paid-up member of the Communist party and champion of women's rights in Seventies' Milan. But she soon proved her worth. In 1985, she designed a new line of black, unlabelled, hard-wearing, but finely-woven nylon handbags that immediately became must-haves for the fashion cognoscenti, seen hanging off the arm of the likes of Jerry Hall and Marie Helvin. With retail prices starting at around £250, a bootlegging industry quickly sprang up, making the authentic articles even more desirable. More importantly, Prada bags were established as the accessory of choice for supermodels and fashion editors the world over.
Prada launched her eponymous ready-to-wear collection for autumn/winter 1989 to critical acclaim. The plain, almost austere lines of her designs provided a stark contrast to the overtly sensual designs of other labels of the time and one admiring fashion journalist described Prada's clothes as "uniforms for the slightly disenfranchised". In 1992, she debuted the less expensive bridge line Miu Miu (Miuccia's nickname), inspired by her personal wardrobe of earthier, hippyish garments in natural fabrics and colours. Clean and stylish designs, fine materials and exquisite craftsmanship conspired to win Prada a Council of Fashion Designers of America International Award in 1993. A year later, she showed in New York for the first time and opened her London boutique. She now shows for Prada and Miu Miu twice a year in Milan.
Miuccia met her husband and business partner Patrizio Bertelli at the same time she took the helm of the family company. "If I hadn't met him, I probably would have given up - or at least not been able to do what I have done," she said. It was under Bertelli's sway that the design house started making moves towards becoming an international conglomerate to rival LVMH in 1999/2000, adding such top flight labels as Fendi, Helmut Lang, Jil Sander and Azzedine Alaia to its portfolio of brands.
Notable quote: "I love fashion, but I think it should stay in its place, not rule your life. It's a very nice part of your life, but I think it should be fun."
Article from Vogue.co.uk
Labels: Designer, Miuccia, Prada
Frida Gianini for Gucci
Frida Giannini's unique talent and passionate disposition has fuelled her rise as an international designer for one of the most recognized luxury fashion brands.Born in Rome in 1972, she studied fashion design at Rome's Fashion Academy before apprenticing in a small ready to wear house. In 1997, she landed a job at Fendi where she worked as a ready to wear designer for three seasons before being named designer for Fendi leathergoods.
In September 2002, she joined Gucci as Handbag Design Director. Two years later, she was appointed to the unprecedented role of Creative Director of Accessories in charge of bags, shoes, luggage, small leathergoods, silks, fine jewellery, gifts, watches and eyewear. She took on the position with her trademark confidence and conviction, and has brought a powerful point-of-view to the house's accessories.
By reinterpreting iconic elements from Gucci's past, such as the "Flora" scarf patterns and equestrian imagery, she has infused a rich heritage with new energy and modern sex appeal.
In March 2005, she was named Creative Director of Gucci Women's ready-to-wear, in addition to her responsibilities for all accessories. In January 2006, she also became in charge of men's wear, thus becoming the sole Creative Director of the label. Her fresh and joyous vision combined with her savvy interpretation of the Gucci legacy has delighted fashion followers around the world. She has also been embraced by Hollywood, where her designs frequently grace the red carpet.
Frida approaches her life as passionately as she does work. Her humour, intelligence and fine-tuned aesthetic instincts shine through all of her designs. She has the same appreciation for a 1950s Raphael arm chair as she does for a new wave David Bowie album cover.
Through her frequent travels she constantly expands her range of inspirations and cultural experiences. Her well-rounded lifestyle makes her appreciate the needs of the modern Gucci woman. She balances the demands of a brilliant career with the laughter and intimacy of family and friends. Crediting her warm and optimistic personality to the sunny Roman way of life, Frida is a true embodiment of Italian style.
Like the brand she designs for, Frida has chosen to base in Florence both her professional and private life. She works in Gucci's offices in the town and resides with her husband in a 15th century apartment in the centre of Florence.
Article from Gucci
Labels: Designer, Frida, Gianini, Gucci
Ennio Capasa
for Costume National
Hailing from the heel of Italy's boot - the town of Lecce - Ennio Capasa was raised on fashion. Capasa's parents were proprietors of several upscale boutiques showcasing a glamorous abundance of couture. As a child, the designer despised fashion, but the allure of design lead him to enroll in the Milan Academy of Fine Arts in 1982. As the founder of Costume National, Capasa has embraced his fashion beginnings and today designs clothes that straddle the line between everyday wear and on-the-town elegance.When asked why he hated fashion as a child, the designer explained that he had believed many of his parent's clientele were both bored and rich and he wanted to avoid the lifestyle that he associated with fashion. Upon graduating from the Milan art school in 1982, Capasa sought work overseas and found it in Japan working for Yohji Yamamoto where he learned to drape, cut and sew for roughly three years.
Capasa left Japan with Yamamoto's suggestion to begin his own label. His talent apparent early on. However, instead of using his own surname as so many designers do, he took inspiration from an antique book of uniforms and Costume National was born in 1993. Even at this early stage, Capasa's designs reflected a desire to blur the line between formal and informal attire.
Capasa's subsequent designs can ultimately be described as stylishly hip-relaxed yet sporting an innate sexiness. Although Capasa's first collections were for men, he quickly launched a women's line, but it did not meet with initial approval from the Italian fashion press. Nevertheless, even without an initial press buzz, the savvy designer has met with considerable success in both his men and women's fashions. He is known throughout the world these days with his own boutiques in Rome, Milan, Tokyo and New York.
Generally speaking, Capasa's clothing (he also designs bags, belts and leather items) tends to focus on the hips, neck and shoulders. It is a cosmopolitan style interested in urban colors and the play between glossy and mat accents. His clothing has been described as "second-skin" and close-to-the body without simply being tight. Clothing that is sensual is the designer's hallmark.
Recent collections have conveyed a subtle safari motif with buttoned pockets and African accents. The designer has also launched shoe and cologne lines that have greatly pleased his most receptive audience. Costume National is also available from other upscale and progressive retailers like Barney's of New York.
By J. A. Young
Labels: Capasa, Costume National, Designer, Ennio
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Stefano Pilati (YSL)
On What's Sexy
Yves Saint Laurent’s new head designer on why you should expose your calves, listen to more R&B, and remember to just say no to yellow sports cars.1. The biggest mistake you can make when dressing is to pretend you’re someone else. Proportions are everything. Don’t wear jackets with big shoulders if your shoulders are small. Don’t dress like a kid if you are old. Clothing should be a representation of a body, not a distortion of it. That said, I love women in men’s clothing.
2. Calves are a devastatingly undervalued body part. They are so beautiful. Women, at least, can wear skirts. But we have to wear our pants long, long, long. Why?
3. Men have a need for comfort that will always get in the way of their style. We are not used to suffering. Women will put on makeup in 90-degree weather; they will wear shoes that destroy their feet. We simply won’t do that. If it hurts, we just won’t put it on.
4. I find R&B music very sensual. It teaches men and women how to communicate sexually—all of a sudden he’s talking about his feelings and she’s talking about her feelings and then, well . . . it’s taught me a lot.
5. I don’t want to tell you that money will help you with women. I don’t want to tell you that money will help you with anything. I guess I’ll just say that it allows for a lot.
6. The sleek nineties aesthetic made sense to a lot of men. The black leather furniture, the fur blankets—it was easy. Now we have to work a little harder. The important thing is just to keep trying.
7. Your hands are a part of your body that you always show people. They are a big part of the first impression that you make. Get a manicure; it’s the respectful thing to do.
8. I don’t honestly think that there is a man alive who looks good with long hair.
9. Cars are like muscles. Now that I’m 40, I feel like I am ready to buy a vintage Ferrari. It’s a good and sporty car, but it’s also classy. I know there is ego involved, but it’s not like it’s totally vain. If I wanted a yellow Lamborghini, that would be different. That would be like having big muscles. I’d feel like a piece of meat.
Article from Men.Style.Com
Labels: Designer, Pilati, Stefano, YSL
Christopher Bailey
for Burberry Prorsum
Christopher Bailey was born in West Yorkshire, England in 1972, his father was a carpenter father and his mother was a visual designer for Marks and Spencers. His grandmother was Italian, from whom he believes he got his love of fashion. At 18 years old, he won a place in a two-year fashion course at the Royal College of Art in London.Fortune favoured him when Donna Karan visited the college and asked him to work for her. In 1990 he joined her house in New York and remained there for 2.1/2 years. He was the right-hand man to Peter Speliopoulos, who was designing for Donna Karan. He says he learned a great deal at that time.
In 1993, Tom Ford met him and offered him a place with Gucci and he ended up working 5.1/2 years with Ford, from 1995 to 2001. He feels his time under Tom Ford was very valuable and he learned a lot. Being at heart British, Christopher then wanted to work with a designer in the U.K. His opportunity came when Rose Marie Bravo, the owner of Burberry, offered him the design job. He joined Burberry in June 2001. His runway debut for Burberry was a relaxed presentation in a Milan palazzo that had playfulness as well as a return to Burberry's British roots. He has built on that concept while revamping the influences with contemporary silhouettes, fabrics and finishes.
Bailey has also overseen the start-up of Burberry's immense 57th Street New York flagship store, opened in Fall 2002. This will enable Burberry and Bailey to move into the US market with a bang. Bailey presented his Spring/Summer Prorsum 2003 collection for Burberry in Milan in September 2002. This is an outfit from that collection. He picked up the military/sport theme and managed to make something really different, matching cashmere jog pants with mesh jackets. He used the new Burberry check scaled up in soft green, on a shrunken jacket that looked like an old friend.
Bailey showed his Autumn/Winter 2003 collection for Burberry at the London Fashion Week during February 2003.
Burberry is one of the largest and most broadly based fashion brands in the world. Bailey used flashbacks from the 1980's for his Fall show. He didn't use the famous Burberry plaid much, but he made a printed nylon raincoat with an English country scene on it. Plenty of neat little jackets and stretch-chiffon dresses were shown. He also came up with some cool sweaters in blocks of New Age stripes.
He also showed his own collection in the same week.
Forbes magazine published their list of the world's most influential designers in November 2005. At the top of the list was Christopher Bailey generating 170 million pounds in sales at Burberry and getting 421 press mentions during the year. Manolo Blahnik, shoe designer came second followed by Dolce and Gabbana, who came third.
Article from Designer History
Labels: Bailey, Burberry, Christopher, Designer, Prorsum
Hedi Slimane for Dior Homme
With an Italian mother, Tunisian father, and Brazilian grandmother, Hedi Slimane embodies the new global fashion. Here Charla Carter chats with the man who could do for menswear what Yves Saint Laurent did for women 40 years ago. Anybody familiar with Paris fashion is probably aware of the game of musical chairs being played in the women's arena: Will Nicolas Ghesquière grab Gucci? Olivier Theyskens go to Givenchy? Who's jockeying for Jil Sander?
Until now, the menswear realm had generally been spared all that frenzied speculation. But during the fall/winter mens' shows in late January, all Paris was abuzz. In what critics loved to call a "Gladiator"-style clash, Gucci's Tom Ford presented his first men's collection for Yves Saint Laurent, and Hedi Slimane (shown, right), who'd occupied Ford's chair at YSL until July, showed his first clothing line under the Dior Homme label the next day. Fuel sloshed onto the flames when front-row-watchers noted that Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé attended Slimane's Dior debut, but were conspicuously absent from Ford's show for YSL -- the house the pair co-founded.
The votes are now tallied, and it's pretty much ... a tie. The consensus seems to be that there's room in the fashion universe for both Kings of Cool, that Ford's particular brand of sleek, sexy style can easily coexist in a man's closet alongside Slimane's equally erotic, edgy clothes (shown, below). As for all the media brouhaha, Hedi Slimane couldn't care less. As he emphasizes in the following interview with eLUXURY's Paris-based fashion and beauty editor, Charla Carter, his real concern is "to recreate the culture of the Dior label." And, who knows? Maybe in the process, this pale 32-year-old dressed in loose-hipped jeans, rhinestone belt, and slim black coat who just narrowly escaped becoming a political journalist may achieve his ultimate goal -- that of "completely re-defining men's fashion."
C.C. - In your four years at YSL, you totally revamped its nondescript menswear image by producing luxuriously tailored clothes with a subversive twist that many called "androgynous." Now that you're at Dior, will you be designing any differently?
H.S. - It would be dishonest for me to do "a look of the season" or a particular style under the pretext that I've changed fashion houses. It's just not me. I don't like formulas; my approach to design is purely intuitive. What I designed for YSL was a little more raw; Dior Homme may be more romantic -- more poetic, perhaps. As for my clothes being branded "feminine," I think it's all a state of mind. Who cares whether a guy or a girl wears the garments? This masculine/feminine dialectic doesn't interest me -- in my head, we're all a little bit of both.
C.C. - Leaving one illustrious French couture house for another -- was the transition difficult?
H.S. - Not really. Of course, Yves Saint laurent has a cachet that's hard to beat; a rich history. But historically, the two houses are linked -- don't forget, Yves Saint Laurent started out at Christian Dior. It was a logical transition for me.
C.C. - Was the project at all daunting?
H.S. This Dior project is fabulous! The challenge for me is to try new things, to push the boundaries. It's an extremely well-known brand, but it's a label that up until now has had no real identity. Everything needed re-thinking -- the name, the label, the proportions, the shoulder-lines, the collars -- even the basics of the Dior Homme environment: its offices.
C.C. Your fashion show -- a starkly minimalist runway with models emerging from a luminous blue background -- was certainly a departure for the tad traditional Dior. As were the clothes. Almost all black and white, your signature taut tailoring -- revealing lots of bare skin -- was very much in evidence. Even the pre-show newspaper advertising, double-page black-and-white studio portraits of a bare-torsoed blond boy (shot by Richard Avedon, no less) seem a galaxy away from Dior menswear's image as we know it.
H.S. That's the point. What appealed to me about the Dior proposition was that it's a blank page. I'm not here to do a reincarnation of Christian Dior. I wanted the runway show to be a little "hard core," and very fast. Many of the models we chose for the show were practically unknowns -- I found them on the bus, walking in the street. And Eric Van Nostrand, the boy I chose for the Avedon ads, is a new model, fresh from a small town in upstate New York. I wanted those photos to represent the viewpoint of a new generation -- to distill its energy.
C.C. So Dior Homme's mission now is to dress this "new generation" of men?
H.S. Well, I'd like to think there's a return to elegance, a revival of the notion of "fashion" for men. I've mounted a crusade against this informal "casual Friday" trend. I'd like men to think about evolving into something more sophisticated, more seductive for a change. I'm not a militant, but what I'm really interested in is exploring the possibility of an entirely new kind of masculinity.
Article from eLuxury Magazine
Labels: Designer, Dior Homme, Hedi, Slimane
