Happy Birthday Kenneth Cole

Kenneth Cole will have 56 candles on his birthday cake today.   I am fairly impressed with Kenneth Cole Productions.  It was founded in 1982 by Kenneth Cole. Wanting to preview his line of shoes at Market Week at New York’s Hilton Hotel, but couldn’t afford the purchase of a hotel room to display his items, Kenneth asked about parking a trailer two blocks from the Hilton Hotel. When told that permits for trailers were only granted to utility and production companies, Cole changed the name of his company from Kenneth Cole Incorporated to Kenneth Cole Productions, then applied for a permit to film the full-length film, “The Birth of a Shoe Company”. In two and a half days, Kenneth Cole Productions sold forty thousand pairs of shoes, while chronicling the beginning of the company on film.  Since then he hasn’t looked back.

He and his wife Maria Cuomo are very supportive of several charities and organizations and has been very public in his support of AIDS awareness and research since 1985.   He is known for his socially concious and provocative ad campaigns from his “We all have AIDS” campaign to the current “We all walk in different shoes.” campaign.

Kenneth Cole shoes are mid priced and for their price, they are a fairly good buy.  Here are some Kenneth Cole shoes for today.

Gentle Souls - Sole Lace $210 at Kennethcole.com

Gem nastics $70 at Zappos

Fish n Chips  $70 at Piperlime

And my favorite.  Is this the best color in the world?

Rocky Canyon $107 at Endless

To celebrate I am going to put the above shoe in my Zappos shopping cart.  I may even buy them.  Does anyone else do that?  Put a shoe in the cart and let them sit a while?

Happy Birthday Patrick Cox

Patrick Cox turns 47 today.

Patrick is a Canadian born designer who at 19 produced his first pair of shoes for Loucas Kleanthous, a Toronto based designer.  Loucas encouraged Patrick to go to design school.  Not one to let his studies get in the way of his education, Patrick, through his partying,  made friends with Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano who were rising fashion stars at the time. Vivienne had him design the shoes for her Clint Eastwood collection in 1984 and designed the shoes for Galliano’s Fallen Angels collection in 1986 and continued to work with Galliano for six years.  I tried to find photos of those two collections but failed.   

He designed the prototype for Vivienne Westwood’s shoes that tripped up Naomi Campbell on the Paris Catwalk  in 1993. 

Here are more Patrick Cox shoes for you, via PatrickCox.com.

Leli

Dorothy

Tiziana

In 2008 he sold most of  his company to “Fast” Eddie Davenport because the recession hit the business hard, then in 2009 there was talk about litigation.  I hope Mr. Cox is able to salvage his company.

Happy Birthday Takada Kenzo

Takada Kenzo is 71 today.  Born in Himeji, Kenzo’s love for fashion developed at an early age through reading his sisters’ magazines.  In 1958, he joined Bunka Fashion College which had then just opened its classes to male students.  After graduating he evenutally landed in Paris to make his way in the fashion industry.  He had virtually no money.  Using the fabrics he found were found at Saint Pierre Fabric Market, Kenzo often had to cobble a piece together using different fabrics. 

Here is a vintage 1970s suede dress.

Vintage couture Kenzo dress below.

A few of my favorite Kenzo Shoes.

Kenzo Boot 294971 $632 at Endless

Kenzo 294827 Pump $300 at Endless

Kenzo 294956 Sandal $625 at Endless  My favorite.  This heel is wonderful.

Kenzo retired in 1999.  He is now designing home furnishings.

Happy Birthday Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy

Hubert de Givenchy turns 83 today.  He is such an interesting man.

He is the younger son of a french nobleman.   At ten, he decided he wanted to work in fashion.  In 1952, just weeks before is 25th birthdayhe opened his design house.  He was the youngest designer of the progressive Paris fashion scene. His first collections were characterized by the use of men’s cotton shirting – a cheaper fabric, but they always piqued curiosity through their design.  He later became such a good friend with Cristobal Balianciaga that when Cristobal retired, he referred his customers to Givenchy.

The two women most closely assiciated with Givenchy fashion are Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy.  He designed the cream silk gown Mrs. Kennedy wore on their visit to France in 1961, and it was a Givenchy dress she wore as she attended her husband’s funeral in 1963.  

He met an awkward teenager named Audrey Hepburn, in 1954, looking for dresses in her first movie Sabrina. They remained friends and he dressed her for 40 years. 

He created the first line of ready to wear.  LVHM bought his design house in 1988, then was pressured to retire.  A side note, LVHM ignored Givenchy’s choice of replacement designers and hired John Galliano then Alexander McQueen,  neither were good matches so they moved on.  Riccardo Tisci is creating some wonderful designs at Givenchy, and I can’t wait to see what he shows in Paris.  Today Hubert de Givenchy lives quietly outside Paris collecting art and antiques.

Here are shoes the House of Givenchy offers.

Star studded bootie $1095 at Barneys

Givenchy 594913 $1403 at Zappos Couture

Metalic Gladiator Sandal $790 at Barneys

To celebrate I will put on my tiara, have coffee and a danish while I look at the Tiffany’s website.

Happy Birthday Emanuel Ungaro

Emanuel Ungaro has 77 candles on his birthday cake today.

Born in 1933 to Italian parents who had fled to France from Francavilla Fontana of because of the fascist Italian government.  He once said he thought in French but laughed in Italian.  When he was 22 he started working for the Balenciaga design house then moved to Courreges.  At 32 he opened his own design house in Paris, with help from Sonia Knapp and Elena Bruna Fassio and four seamstresses.  He later partnered with Salvatore Ferragamo and Bulgari to create a perfume company.  In 2004 Mr. Ungaro sold his label to Asim Abdulla.  The label itself is doing OK but the runway line has been struggling for years.  The runway line got quite a bit of negative publicity this year after Lindsay Lohan was hired as an artistic design consultant.   All hell broke loose with the head designer quitting, another designer trying to cobble a line together in just weeks, the line was panned, photos from the backstage weren’t pretty. 

From 2000

From the 2008 line

Some vintage Ungaro shoes.

I could not find an online outlet that sells Ungaro shoes.  To celebrate I will wear a bright orange outfit because Ungaro was well known in the 80s and legendary for his use of bright colors.