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Collage of Mary Quant & her work

Fashion Designers A-Z

                   

Left: Fashion designer Paco Rabanne on the film set of Casino Royale at Elstree. Working on the clothes for the film, 6th July 1966.

 

Center left: Grace Coddington in Mary Quant’s minidress and shorts set with the designer in 1966.

Center right: Hot Pants by Mary Quant in 1971, she was a mod fashion designer and was also known for the mini skirt. Mary Quant opened a clothing boutique on London’s King’s Road called Bazaar (known for its mod culture establishments) it became very popular with the young culture of the 60s, was very innovative and she created a sensation. Bazaar’s window displays were eye catching and, in some cases, shocking, and provoked a buzz resulting in queues down the street as shoppers jostled to get in and buy. Click on the fantastic video link below:

https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/exhibit/0QKSHn4SqTdrLw

 

Right: Diorable Style, February 1947 – Dior’s New Look is Born. Christian Dior revolutionized the fashion world through his fantastic themes and colorful materials. He managed to create a beautiful design that would complement any woman and make her features stand out.

  Right: Queen of punk Vivienne Westwood. Vivienne Westwood is one of the world’s most famous fashion designers. Wild, anarchic punk music inspired her to create wild, anarchic fashion. At 75, the British designer’s style is still extravagant. The fashion world was tickled pink when the flashy woman from London presented her first catwalk show, the Pirate Collection, in 1981. With that legendary show, Vivienne Westwood said farewell to punk – and became a recognized fashion designer. From that day on, the redhead and her unconventional creations were part of all the major shows.  

Each day, we put on clothes that do more than just cover up bodies. We choose clothes that represent our personalities, our moods, the times we live in, our ambitions and our desires. Who are the people behind the designs we wear every day? These fashion designers who have made fashion a huge industry, and whose work is as controversial, and as influential, as traditional art. These are some of the designers who have dressed the world’s most famous people—and are hugely famous in their own right.

Fashion designers design clothes, lifestyle accessories, and shoes that are not just functional but also aesthetically pleasing. Fashion designers may design the items for an individual, or for the mass market. With the human’s obsession with appearance and convenience, fashion designers have a lot of factors to consider while designing the garments and accessories. They work with a wide range of materials, and have to plan for the patterns, styles, and colors of each item they design keeping in mind the end customer.

Fashion designing is an art influenced by social and cultural values that have evolved over time, thus it is a very dynamic and historically an interesting profession, with our own obsession with the designers themselves. Fashion designing has always been considered to be among the most lucrative and glamorous of careers. Of course, it is a very challenging profession as well. It calls for a high level of creativity combined with a sense of aesthetics and managerial skills.

Fashion designers normally work for designer labels and clothing manufacturers. They may design cheaper ranges of casual garments for the mass market or work on one-off exclusive creations working directly with a high profile customer. Browse this section to learn more about the famous fashion designers who have marked the world with their artistic expressions.

  A Adolfo Sardina Born: Adolfo F. Sardiña in Cardenas, Cuba, 15 February 1933; immigrated to New York, 1948, naturalized, 1958. Education: B.A., St. Ignacious de Loyola Jesuit School, Havana, 1950. Military Service: Served in the U.S. Navy. Career: Apprentice millinery designer, Bergdorf Goodman, 1948-51; apprentice milliner at Cristobal Balenciaga Salon, Paris, 1950-52, and at Bergdorf Goodman, New York; designed millinery as Adolfo of Emmé, 1951-58; also worked as unpaid apprentice for Chanel fashion house, Paris, 1956-57; apprenticed in Paris with Balenciaga; established own millinery salon in New York, 1962, later expanded into women’s custom clothing; designer, Adolfo Menswear and Adolfo Scarves, from 1978; perfume Adolfo launched, 1978; closed custom workroom to concentrate on his Adolfo Enterprises licensing business, 1993; debuted limited collection through Castleberry, 1995. Exhibitions: Fashion: An Anthology, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1971. Collections: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts; Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Awards: Coty Fashion award, New York, 1955, 1969; Neiman Marcus award, 1956. Member: Council of Fashion Designers of America. In April of 1993, Adolfo closed his salon on New York’s East 57th Street, after more than 25 years producing his classically elegant knit suits, dresses, and eveningwear. The outcry from his clientéle was emotional and indicative of the devotion his clothes inspired in his “ladies,” including C.Z. Guest (“It’s just a tragedy for me. He has such great taste, style, and manners…I’ve been wearing his clothes for years; they suit my lifestyle. He designs for a certain way of life that all these new designers don’t seem to comprehend.”); Jean Tailer (“I’m devastated…. He’s the sweetest, most talented man. With Adolfo, you always have the right thing to wear.”), and scores of others, such as Nancy Reagan, the Duchess of Windsor, Noreen Drexel, and Pat Mosbacher. These loyal clients were among the many who returned to Adolfo season after season for clothes they could wear year after year, clothes that looked stylish and felt comfortable, style and comfort being the essence of his customers’ elegant and effortless lifestyle. Adolfo began his career as a milliner in the early 1950s, a time when hat designers were accorded as much respect and attention as dress designers. By 1955 he had received the Coty Fashion award for his innovative, often dramatic hat designs for Emmé Millinery. In 1962 Adolfo opened his own salon and began to design clothes to show with his hat collection. During this period, as women gradually began to wear hats less often, Adolfo’s hat designs became progressively bolder. His design point of view held that hats should be worn as an accessory rather than a necessity, and this attitude was carried over into his clothing designs as well. Adolfo’s clothes of the late 1960s had the idiosyncratic quality characteristic of the period and, more importantly, each piece stood out on its own as a special item. This concept of design was incongruous with the American sportswear idea of coordinated separates but was consistent with the sensibility of his wealthy customers who regarded clothes, like precious jewelry, as adornments and indicators of their social status. Among the garments that captured the attention of clients and press during this period were felt capes, red, yellow, or purple velvet bolero jackets embroidered with jet beads and black braid, studded lace-up peasant vests, low-cut floral overalls worn over organdy blouses, and extravagant patchwork evening looks. Adolfo remarked, in 1968, “Today, one has to dress in bits and pieces—the more the merrier.” By 1969 he described his clothes as being “for a woman’s fun and fantasy moods—I don’t think the classic is appealing to people any more.” Just one year later, however, he changed his point of view and at the same time increased the focus of his knits, which had been introduced in 1969. In a review of Adolfo’s fall 1970 collection, Eugenia Sheppard, writing in the New York Post, declared “he has completely abandoned the costume look of previous years.” Adolfo was always responsive to his customers’ needs and this sudden change of direction probably reflected their reaction to the social upheavals and excesses of the last years of the 1960s. By the early 1970s the 1930s look, inspired by films such as Bonnie and Clyde and The Damned, swept over fashion, drowning out the kooky individualism of seasons past. His explorations of this look led Adolfo, in 1973, to hit on what would become his signature item. Taking his cue from Coco Chanel’s cardigan style suits of the 1930s, Adolfo translated the textured tweed into a pebbly knit, added a matching silk blouse, and came up with a formula his clients returned to over and over again until his retirement. These revivals of a classic became classics in their own right and the look became associated in America with Adolfo as much as with Chanel. Adolfo’s collections were not limited to suits. When other American designers abandoned dresses for day in favor of sportswear separates, Adolfo continued to provide his customers with printed silk dresses appropriate for luncheons and other dressy daytime occasions. Adolfo’s clients also relied on him for splendid eveningwear combining luxury with practicality. Typical evening looks included sweater knit tops with full satin or taffeta skirts, fur trimmed knit cardigans, silk pyjamas, and angora caftans. After closing his salon to concentrate on marketing his licensed products, including perfumes, menswearm, furs, handbags, sportswear, and hats, Adolfo made numerous appearances at departments stores and on QVC to promote his name and products in the early and mid-1990s, which were valued at some $5-million annually. In late 1995, he returned to designing, with a limited collection sponsored by Castleberry. The designer himself once remarked that “an Adolfo lady should look simple, classic, and comfortable.” He brought modest and characteristically American design ideals to a higher level of luxury and charm, combining quality and style with comfort and ease. While in some fashion circles, seeing women similarily dressed was a serious fashion faux pas, with Adolfo designs, women were thrilled to see their high-brow selections reflected in social scene mirrors. According to the Chicago Tribune in 1986, “Adolfo Ladies revel in duplication, triplication, quadruplication and more—much, much more.” All because, as Jean Tailer told the Tribune, “we all feel a security blanket in getting the best of the collection.” Adolfo provided, as the Tribune aptly called it, a “social security,” to his ladies and they gave him loyalty, devotion, and upwards of $2500 per suit.   Adri Born: Mary Adrienne Steckling in St. Joseph, Missouri, 7 November 1934. Education: Attended St. Joseph Junior College, 1953; studied retailing and design, Washington University (School of Fine Arts), St. Louis, 1954-55, and fashion design at Parsons School of Design, New York, 1955-56; studied at the New School for Social Research, New York, 1956-57. Family: Married Fabio Coen, 1982. Career: Guest editor, Mademoiselle, college issue, 1955; design assistant for Oleg Cassini, Inc., New York, 1957-58; design assistant, later designer, B.H. Wragge, New York, 1960-67; opened Adri Designs Inc., 1966-67; formed Design Establishment, Inc. with Leonard Sunshine and the Anne Fogarty Co., New York, for the Clothes Circuit by Adri and Collector’s Items by Adri division of Anne Fogarty, 1968-72; partner with William Parnes in Adri label for Paul Parnes’s Adri Sporthoughts Ltd., 1972-74; designed for Ben Shaw company, 1975-76; Adri for Royal Robes, leisurewear, under license, 1976-77; Jerry Silverman Sport by Adri label, 1977-78; ADRI label collection for Jones New York, 1978-79; ADRI collection marketed by Habitat Industries, 1980-83; began as critic, Parsons School of Design, 1982; Japanese licensee N. Nomura & Co. Ltd, 1982-87; ADRI Collection marketed by Adri Clotheslab, 1983-87. Created Adri designer patterns for Vogue, 1982; designed several sportswear collections a year, selling to smaller specialty stores and private customers; joined Parsons School of Design faculty, 1991; corporate name changed to Adri Studio Ltd., 1994. Exhibitions: Innovative Contemporary Fashion: Adri and McCardell, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1971; various shows, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City. Awards: Coty American Fashion Critics “Winnie” award, 1982; “International Best Five,” Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, 1986. Member: Council of Fashion Designers of America. Address: 143 West 20th Street, New York, NY, 10011, USA. From the moment she fell in love with her first Claire McCardell dress while still a teenager—a dress she copied for herself many times because it fit her so well—Adri (Adrienne Steckling-Coen) idolized McCardell who, coincidentally, was one of her lecturers at the Parsons School of Design in New York. Adri’s early years with B.H. Wragge taught her the principles of tailoring and mix-and-match separates, long a staple of American sportswear. Designing for Anne Fogarty reinforced the feminine focus of Adri’s design philosophy. Always, she returned to McCardell’s tenet of form following function. Shapes were simple, skimming the body without extraneous detail or fussiness, often based on the practicality of athletic wear. While McCardell favored dresses, Adri emphasized trousers, later designing skirt-length trousers, or culottes, for variety. From the beginning Adri utilized soft, pliable fabrics such as knits, jerseys, crêpe de Chine, challis, and leather. Her clothes were identified by their floaty qualities and she maintained that this softness made them easy to wear and provided relief from the frequent harshness of modern life. They were also ideal for tall, long-limbed, slender figures like her own. During the late 1960s Adri presented V-necked short dresses with high waists or wrapped fronts, in solid colored synthetic jerseys. Natural fibers, such as unbleached linen, came of use in the 1970s and knits continued to be staples for Adri skirts, trousers, and tunics in various lengths. By 1980 a typical Adri evening look consisted of silk trousers topped by a strapless chenille top and fluid lace jacket. Interchangeable neutral solids such as beige, black, and white were combined with bold primary colors so Adri’s customers could collect the separates throughout the years and create their own ensembles, without having to purchase a new wardrobe each year. The simple timelessness of the designs, as well as their easy cut and fit, made this possible. Prices were in the moderate to better sportswear range. Adri wore her own apparel to accept her Coty award in 1982: a belted silver-grey (she called it “platinum”) mohair sweater over midcalf culottes made of grey suede. Soon afterwards she branched out into menswear, creating unisex sweaters, cardigans, and vests. Evening looks continued to be based on day shapes, but fabricated of highly colored striped shiny rayon or mohair. Pullovers, jackets, and vests were frequently long, and Adri kept experimenting with new materials, such as eelskin, for her contrasting boldly colored belts, or handloomed Japanese fabrics with interesting textures. A touch of the opulent 1980s was evident in her use of tapestry jackets to be worn with velvet trousers, as well as damask and silk Jacquard. Clothes like these can be easily adapted for homesewers, and Adri contracted with Vogue Patterns during the mid-1980s for a relationship that continued into the 1990s. The same McCardell-inspired sporty yet fluid lines were evident; shirtwaist dresses with topstitching detail, softly gathered jackets, shaped hemlines with gracefully flounced skirts, cummerbund accents to shorten the appearance of tall, slim figures, gently gathered waists, and easy wrap dresses were some of the offerings available to seamstresses wishing to recreate Adri’s classic multifunctional designs. Since changing her corporate name to Adri Studio Ltd. in 1994, Adri has continued to design small collections. Hard at work in her New York studio, she has focused on designer collections exclusively. With her Egyptian partner, Nadia Abdella, Adri continues to fashion the fluid, timeless pieces for which she has always been known. “The concept,” she says, “remains the same.” This design concept was always, she noted, a very flexible, contemporary one and has continued into the 21st century quite successfully. She creates one exclusive designer collection a season that is both wholesale and retail. The Adri collections are available through exclusive stores and show in private clubs, such as The Ruins in San Francisco. This approach, both simple and consistent, and the adaptable charm and enduring quality of an Adri garment, have created a niche for the designer and, “It’s working,” she says. By the time MGM costumer Gilbert Adrian went into business for himself in the middle of World War II, his potential customers were already familiar with his work. For over a decade American women had been wearing copies of the clothes he had designed for some of the most famous movie stars of all time. Adrian’s ability to develop a screen character through the progression of costumes, be they period or modern, was translated into dressing the newly modern career women while men were away at war. Adrian was primarily an artist, having trained in France, and was able to perceive Greta Garbo’s true personality—aloof, mysterious, earthy—and change the way the studios dressed her; insisting upon genuine silks, laces, and jewels to lend authenticity to her performances. For all the stars he dressed, Adrian believed the quality of materials worn by a woman affected how she behaved in the clothes, even if the details were not immediately obvious. He brought the same philosophy to his custom and ready-to-wear creations. Of course the copies MGM permitted to be made of Adrian’s costumes, timed to coincide with the releases of the films, were not always of the same fine quality as the originals, but the overall look was what women were after. While films provided a great escape from the dreariness of the American Depression, the famous white organdy dress with wide ruffled sleeves that Adrian designed for Joan Crawford in the movie Letty Lynton offered cheer and flattery. Macy’s New York department store alone sold nearly half a million copies in 1932. The artist’s eye perceived the need to balance Crawford’s wide hips, and the broad shouldered typical “Adrian silhouette” triggered a fashion revolution in America and abroad. For Jean Harlow in Dinner at Eight, Adrian created another widely copied sheer white bias-cut satin ballgown. Though Madeleine Vionnet invented the bias cut and Elsa Schiaparelli was credited with padded shoulders, at least in Europe, Adrian had the awareness to bring high fashion and glamour to the screen. Joan Crawford praised Adrian’s emphasis on simplicity to make a dramatic point, as in the suits she wore in her later films. Even in lavishly costumed period dramas, Adrian was able to stop short of excess. Often, as in Garbo’s Mata Hari, the character’s evolution into purity of spirit would be expressed through increased simplicity of costume. Adrian’s understanding of light and shadow made possible clothing that, due to clarity of line, looked as well in monochrome film as later black-and-white photographs of his commercial designs would show. His eye for perfect cut was impeccable. A day suit consisting of a beige wool jacket trimmed with loops of black braid, paired with a slim black skirt, black gloves, and beige cartwheel hat, looks as crisp and smart today as it did when featured in Vogue in 1946. Fluid floor-length crêpe gowns were dramatically yet whimsically decorated with asymmetrical motifs of horses, cherubs, or piano keys, or his taste for modern art would be indulged in gowns made up of abstract jigsaw puzzle shapes in several colors. Just as in films Adrian worked within themes, so did his collections for Adrian, Ltd. develop according to such themes as gothic, Grecian, Persian, Spanish, or Americana. For the latter he appliquéd Pennsylvania Dutch designs on gowns and made tailored suits and bustled evening gowns out of checked gingham, echoing the gingham checks worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. Adrian costumed Garbo as the essence of romance in Camille, not only in 19th-century crinolines, but in white nightgown (which could have been any female viewer’s late day dinner dress) for the film’s death scene. For his average American customer, Adrian recommended clothes like the “costumes worn by the heroines of light comedies…in moderatesized towns.” Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story was dressed by Adrian as the ideal girl next door, while conservative Norma Shearer mirrored the sophisticated simplicity of Adrian’s future well-heeled Beverly Hills clients in The Women. The spare, padded-shouldered, narrow waisted and skirted silhouette of the 1940s was the ideal medium for Adrian’s artistry with fabric, while conforming to the wartime L-85 restrictions on materials—the U.S. government limitation on the amount of fabric used in a civilian garment for public consumption. The color inserts, appliqués, mitering of striped fabrics and combinations of materials in one ensemble allowed for savings in rationed fabrics, while creating the trademark Adrian look which was desired then and is still sought after by vintage clothing collectors. Old-time movie glamor would resurface in some of Adrian’s elegant columns of crêpe, diagonally embellished by headed bands of ancient motifs, or thick gilt embroidery on dark backgrounds. Diagonal lines and asymmetry also lent interest, as in a short-sleeved wartime suit sewn of half plaid and half wool—completed by a hat trimmed in plaid edging. Having grown up observing his father’s millinery trade, Adrian had included hats in his movie costuming and his designs, such as Garbo’s slouch, cloche, and Eugenie, were widely copied in the 1930s. Adrian unsuccessfully resisted Dior’s round-shouldered New Look. Men returned from the war, and women returned to the home. Decades later, with the resurgence of women into the workforce, Adrian’s broad shouldered looks enabled women to compete confidently with men, as designers resurrected the masterpieces of this truly American fashion virtuoso.     Agnés B Born: Born Agnés Troublé in Versailles, France, 26 November 1942. Family: Married Christian Bourgois, 1958 (divorced); two additional marriages and divorces; five children. Career: Junior fashion editor, Elle magazine, Paris, 1964; designer, press attaché, and buyer for Dorothée Bis, Paris, 1965-66; freelance designer for Limitex, Pierre d’Alby, V de V, and Eversbin, Paris, 1966-75; set up CMC (Comptoir Mondial de Création) holding company for Agnés B., 1975; established first Agnés B. boutique in Les Halles, Paris, April 1975; opened second-hand shop in same street as boutique, 1977; created American subsidiary of CMC and first American boutique in Soho, New York, 1980; opened men’s and children’s boutique Agnés B. Enfant, Paris, 1981; license with Les Trois Suisses for mail order of selected items, 1982; opened Agnés B. Lolita boutique for teenagers, also opened La Galerie du Jour art gallery/bookshop, Paris, with exhusband, 1984; launched Le B perfume, skincare and cosmetics products, and a maternity collection, 1987; launched ranges of sunglasses and watches, 1989; launched Le petit b.b. perfume for children, 1990; launched Courant d’air perfume, 1992; established many shops in France and worldwide, including Japan, London, and the United States. Collections: Musée des Arts de la Mode, Paris; Musée du Louvre, Paris. Awards: Order of Merit for Export, Paris. Address: 17 rue Dieu, 75010 Paris, France.   Albini, Walter Born: Born Gualtiero Albini in Busto Arsizio, near Milan, 9 March 1941. Education: Studied fashion and costume design, Istituto Statale di Belle Arti e Moda, Turin, 1959-61. Career: Illustrator for Novità and Corriere Lombardo periodicals, Milan, and freelance sketch artist, Paris, 1961-64; freelance designer for Krizia, Billy Ballo, Basile, Callaghan, Escargots, Mister Fox, Diamantis, Trell, Mario Ferari, Lanerossi, Kriziamaglia, Montedoro, and Princess Luciana, Milan, 1964-83; established Walter Albini fashion house, Milan, 1965; signature ready-to-wear collection introduced, 1978; Walter Albini Fashions branches established, London, Rome, Venice. Died: 31 May 1983, in Milan. In William Shakespeare’s Richard II, “report of fashions in proud Italy” are the vanguard for what comes to England only in “base imitation.” Walter Albini epitomized the brilliant epoch of Italian fashion in the 1970s, when it seized the international imagination. At least as much as any other designer, if not more, Albini had the Italian spirit con brio. Journalists compared him to Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld, designers whose careers outlasted Albini’s flash of brilliance. Albini brought his obsession with the 1920s and 1930s to the elongated line and youthful energy of the 1970s; his collections of 1969 and 1970 tell the story of his encapsulation of the time: Gymnasium and Gypsy and China in 1969; Antique Market, the Pre-Raphaelites, Safari, Military, and Polaroid in 1970. Sadly, Albini so brilliantly embodied the 1970s for Italy (as one would perhaps say of Halston in the U.S.) because of the détente of his work by 1980 and his death in 1983, just after his forty-second birthday. Isa Vercelloni and Flavio Lucchini, in their 1975 book, Milano Fashion, described Albini’s mercurial yet gifted personality and habits: “From adolescence he still retained the capacity of dreaming, but with the ability of giving body or a semblance of reality to his world of dreams. He had the rare quality of even doing this without spoiling it. This is why women like his dresses so much. They recognize immediately that imagination is given power.” It was a wide-ranging imagination, indicative of the 1970s in its travelogue-inspired wanderlust, that captured the vivacity of Diana Vreeland’s Vogue of the 1960s. Like Vreeland, Albini loved the 1920s and extolled the freedom of women and reminded them of their liberation during that period. Also like Vreeland, Albini was smitten with North Africa and the potential for exoticism. He played with paisley and was fascinated by the pattern and design asymmetry as well as the mysterious women of China. His pragmatic exoticism is evident in a spring 1980 t-blouse and party skirt combination, described in a Harper’s Bazaar March 1980 ad as “the mystique of madras. A bit sophisticated for midnight at the oasis…but divine for sunset on the patio.” So many collections were produced in his own name and others between the late 1960s and 1980 that he touched upon many themes, but he returned consistently to the 1920s and 1930s. He had moved to Paris because of a lifetime preoccupation with Chanel, whom he had glimpsed during her late years, but he more substantively used her as a touchstone for his collections. His fall 1978 knits, as photographed by David Bailey, intensified the luxury of Chanel tailoring, although slightly oversized, in a palette of bronze and browns. For his Mister Fox line in beautiful geometrics, he approximated Sonia Delaunay, but echoed the feeling of Chanel. His movie and fashion magazine passions would encompass Katharine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich, but for Albini these merely confirmed the role of Chanel in freeing women to be comfortable in sportswear- and menswear-derived styles that were luxuriously tailored for women. Besides Chanel, Albini’s other passion was for ancient Egypt, for which he felt mystical affinity and which served as an inspiration for his men’s and women’s fashions—especially his fashion drawings. By the mid-1970s, Albini’s style was predominately an amalgam of ancient Egyptian motifs (although often attributed elsewhere in the East) and Chanel, using the Chanel suits and proportions with the accommodations of wrapping á la Egyptienne and the excuses of Venice, North Africa, and India for billowing harem pants and other pantaloons of which Chanel would scarcely have approved. In 1978 a riding skirt, with its fluid drape, was teamed with a short cropped jacket, combining tradition with contemporary 1970s style. In some ways, Albini was the precursor of Gianni Versace. His intensely personal style respected many historical exemplars and was passionately defended and highly expressive. Like Versace, Albini combined a studious infatuation with the past with a passion for his own synthesis of styles and a comprehensive style attainment and conviction that was his own; he created this with a fervor approaching fanaticism that reinforced the sense of abiding adolescence and keenest ebullience for the work. Vercelloni and Lucchini asked Albini what his motto was; he said, “Enjoy today and leave unpleasant things for tomorrow.” For Albini and the extravagant fashion he created, fate held no tomorrow and no unpleasantness.

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