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.

Vans: Off the Wall

Ask many fashionable women these days to name an iconic shoe or shoe designer, and you will likely receive an answer of ‘Christian Louboutin’, ‘Manolo Blahnik’, ‘Miu Miu’ or other high-end designer likely to be featured on red carpets and Fashion Week.

But, how’s this for an Icon:

Detail from Fast times at Ridgemont High Album Art

This image: Simple. Bold. Instantly recognizable.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Vans became part of the national consciousness and roared into pop-culture in one fell swoop more than 20 years ago.

A generation of kids spent math class inking checks onto their own white vans or local drugstore look-a-likes.

Vans – a brand that has stood the test of time and can honestly be called a classic.

Think Vans are just about shoes? Think again.

We’ve given a brief overview of Vans History before now.

But, if you drop by their website, you will notice something. The Vans brand is not just about selling shoes. You could spend hours just cruising through their website. The Vans brand appears as almost its own stand-alone, surf/skate sub-culture (of which I am no expert, child of Northern California that I am) – encompassing an identity as more than a simple product but also as a vibrant lifestyle and community. From community forums, to art, to events, to shopping, you can find it at the Vans website.

This is such a great example of how a brand’s online presence can be about so much more than a web-based extension of their retail interests.

Oh, and for those of you who are intrigued by the custom-produced, small-business history of the Vans brand?

You might enjoy in this retrospective coffee-table book, ‘Vans, Off the Wall’ ($24.95@ Vans.com).

Vans: Off the Wall by Doug Palladini tells the story of the community of action sports legends, musicians, artists and trendsetters that helped to define laid back California style as we know it. This personal, insider account features oral histories from Vans originals including Tony Alva, Steve Caballero, John Cardiel, Shaun Palmer and Joel Tudor and stunning images from CR Stecyk, R. Grant Brittain, Art Brewer, Trevor Graves and many more renowned photographers. This first run, 2009 edition 9″ by 9 3/4″ hardcover bound book is 208 pages and includes 365 full color illustrations.

Oh, and as for how it all started – that whole customized shoes thing?  Yeah, Vans still has you covered there, too.