Happy Birthday Roberto Cavalli

Roberto Cavalli will have 70 candles on his birthday cake today. He also celebrated his 40th anniversary as a designer this year.  Congratulations!

I had never really thought about Cavalli’s designs until I began reading about what he pioneered.   He began as a textile printer for an Italian knitwear line.  He designed a series of floral prints that caught the attention of  several hosiery companies.

In the early 70′s he  invented and  patented a new way to print leather and began to piece them together.  Hermes and Pierre Cardin immediately commissioned pieces from him.  He then started his own fashion house  featuring bright flamboyant fabrics that appealed to the trendsetters.   In 1992 he featured sand blasted denim – I didn’t know  that  was HIS idea.  He is still sandblasting jeans only updating them. (more…)

Happy Birthday Stefano Gabbana

Molto Sexy  turns 48 today.   I find it interesting that his education is in graphic design, rather than fashion design.  He met Domenico Dolce in 1980 and began working together in 1982. This creative partnership started with them as a romantic couple, a great business plan, a lot of style and goals to retire at 40.  They changed their mind.   In 2005,  Stefano and Domenico separated as a couple but continue to work together as business partners and friends.  They have opened Via Spiga 2, an accessory store that features several emerging designers and a new avenue for creativity.

The company has not been without controversy.  The term “raunchy” has been used to describe their ads.     They pulled one photo from the Spanish market after an huge uproar.  Stefano was featured wearing a pair of underwear and stilettos in W magazine.  (I read that article while getting my hair colored a couple of years ago, and found it odd.)  A few years ago he went public about his views of same sex parents, which I found interesting – he thinks a child should have both a mother and father.

Stefano has about 53,000 following him through  his personal Twitter account, which apparently is quite entertaining.  I may sign up for it.   The first thing he does is check the Twitter accounts realizing it is essential in reaching the label’s followers.  Incidentally, the company Twitter account has 40,000.

Let’s look at some Dolce&Gabbana.

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Happy Birthday Tom Ford!

Tom Ford will be celebrating his 49th  birthday today.  He was born August 27, 1961  in Austin, Texas.   His family moved quite a bit,  then when he was a young teenager they settled in Santa Fe, where his grandmother had a ranch.  (I am mildly curious where the ranch is because my parents also have a ranch in that area.)    He left Santa Fe after high school to graduate in architecture at Parsons.  One of his early jobs was a  press office  intern for Chloe, which cultivated an interest in fashion design.   He knew that if he was going to be a good designer, he needed to go to leave America and to to Europe. 

There is a story about him calling Cathy Hardwick every day for a month in hopes of landing a job. Eventually, she agreed to see him. Hardwick later recalled, “I had every intention of giving him no hope. I asked him who his favorite European designers were. He said, ‘Armani and Chanel.’ Months later I asked him why he said that, and he said, ‘Because you were wearing something Armani’. Is it any wonder he got the job?” Tom worked as a design assistant for Hardwick for two years. (more…)

Happy Birthday Betsey Johnson!

  Betsey Johnson will have 68 candles on her birthday cake today.  To celebrate she is offering a 25% discount for purchases made on her website.

   Betsey was born August 10th, 1942 in Wethersfield, Connecticut.  She is best known for her feminine and whimsical designs.   While many of her designs are considered “over the top” and embellished, I love them.   

In the 1960s she was part of the Warhol night club scene.  Edie Sedgwick was her house model.    In the 1970′s she had a rock and roll line called “Alley Cat”.  I made an Alley Cat pants suit (Vogue patterns) in 1976.  If I could fit into it I would still be wearing that outfit.  It was one of my favorites.   In the 80′s she started opening stores.  Today there are over 4o franchise stores.  In the 2000′s she signed a license deal that made her designs more available through Betseyville.   Betsey is also a breast cancer survivor and is very active in the fight against the disease.   Her cheeky description of her style formua is,”Take a leotard, add a skirt.”

 She also does a cartwheel at the end of her fashion shows.  How cute is that! (more…)

Happy Birthday Anna Sui

Anna Sui is celebrating her 46th birthday today.
Anna was born on August 4, 1964 in Detroit, Michigan.  She took an interest in fashion at a very young age and began clipping fashion-magazine pages and put them in a file she calls her Genius Files.

In 1981 she had some friends who made jewelry and were going to sell it at a trade show.  Anna made five pieces of clothing and they asked her to share a booth with them.  She got orders from Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s and was featured in an advertisement in The New York Times.   Anna was working for a company called Glenora when the owner saw the ad.  He asked, “Is this this girl on our payroll?  Why does she have an ad in the Times?”   He then told her she had to stop or he would fire her.  She got fired.  The rest is history.  She laughs and says that starting a fashion line with $300 is a bad business plan.  I would imagine so. (more…)