Bruce- The King Of Fashion and Style World!

Readers,
I stumbled upon this interview and felt like sharing with you people. On the back ground you can visualize personality of Bruce,the fashion designer.His fashion designs are matchless and just adorable through out the world!Just go through this interview to understand this fashion designer deeply!


LO: Many of the smaller companies showed their fall '99 collections after Europe, but you showed yours according to the new schedule, before Europe. Why is that?
Nicole: Everyone's going to eventually have to change to the schedule, so why not change now instead of later? Because there would have always been a time when there was a crunch, we just decided to do it right away. And it's also like people were coming in for those shows, and I don't know how many people came in for the second group of shows that just happened.
LO: I'm curious, why don't you walk out on the runway at the end of your shows?
Daphne: No particular reason. It's not meant to pose any statement. You know, if it was just our friends it would be one thing, but we're not really the type of people that go out in public and, you know, a "Look at me! Look at me!" kind of thing. It's just kind of nerve-wracking. And anyway, if you're not really some sort of exhibitionist, for people to actually go out on a stage with everyone staring at you, it's very strange.
LO: What was the inspiration for fall '99?
Daphne: Everybody asks us that question about inspiration. The way Nicole and I work, it's never really like that. It's not like, "Oh, my inspiration this time was the Renaissance, you know, during the Dark Ages." It's never really about that. Nicole: Fall '99 ended up being a little tough because the seasons changed. The fashion calendar changed a lot, so we had a lot less time. But I think we're just -- we're really trying to focus on the construction of our clothes right now. We don't have themes. But it's pretty much like an evolution of design ideas that we've been working on from seasons past. That one was more construction, I think.
Daphne: Of course, you try to stick to a real cohesive thing during a collection, but really we've kind of dabbled. In every collection we've kind of dabbled in a little bit of everything, whether it's the embroidery or things that are really tactile, like yarns. And we're actually really strong in knitwear. It's not any one particular thing. And we always try to throw in something that has more of a personal feel to it. Sometimes it's not just about a pair of pants, you know, there always might be a little bit of humor in something. If you split the legs open there's air holes on the bottom. We try to take time to make it a little bit more personal. But in terms of inspirations, I guess it's about everything.
LO: How would you describe your customer?
Daphne: Hopefully she's hip. I like to think that our customer could be -- in terms of age at least -- I'd like to think that it can pretty much follow in a really wide range of people. And even in style. I think there should be things that every type of woman should want, that can appreciate. And it varies. I mean, if there is one point of view that I find for some reason stands out in my mind, it's "female." It's funny because we had spoken to a department store once and they said, "Well, because with your name, no one's going to know that you're two females." And I said to her, "Well, if you actually look at our clothing, you would never not know that these are females that designed this."
LO: Do you have any famous customers?
Daphne: From what I understand, in London they've sold things to PJ Harvey.
LO: What do you offer the customer that other designers don't?
Nicole: I think it's our design. The type of design that we do is -- it's not mainstream, but I think it's very easily every-day wearable clothing. We try to make things a little bit more personal to the wearer. There's a lot of small details there that I think are special.
LO: What is your price range?
Daphne: We sell denim that we try to sell with our main collection as well. And it's a really good support for us. So, our least expensive items can run from $150 for a pair of jeans to $500 for a pair of the wool, lined pants, to a leather jacket that runs about $1,300. And that's all retail prices. Tops can range anywhere from, I 'd say, $300 to about $700. For someone who can't go shopping like that every day it's an awesome thing to think of spending $700 on a shirt. I mean, I can justify it because I know how much it took -- how much it cost to make it, and also how much labor went into it.
LO: Did your exposure in "Vogue" a few months ago help your business?
Daphne: Actually, it's been helpful with stores because, you know, your average store probably looks at "Vogue", in America at least. So, it's been pretty good in that way.
Nicole: We were very surprised about that, actually. It was really nice, I think. We've been getting a lot of support from them, from the people there, so it was nice.
LO: So, where did the two of you meet?
Daphne: We met at Parson's, and we used to live across the hall from each other and we became friends that way and we just stayed friends.
LO: Why did you start Bruce?
Nicole: When I was in college I kind of always knew I wanted to do my own thing. And when I got out of school -- you know, there's really not many places to work. So, I took jobs. I mean, the first job I ever took was horrendous. I actually worked at J. Crew and it was like one of the worst experiences I've ever had in a job before. I got out of school and I realized that the opportunities I was interested in weren't there. So, I kind of took jobs that would help me more with what I wanted to do eventually. I ended up taking a job later on at Isaac, which is a secondary line, in the fabric department, in order to help me with this business. And Daphne worked in production for, I think it was Donna Karan mens.
Daphne: It was your typical 9:00 to 5:00 job. Actually, in the design business it's never really 9:00 to 5:00, it's usually 9:00 to 11:00 or 9:00 to 10:00. So, you know, just getting really weary about the kind of jobs that were out there. We were always talking about it and just being friends for so long, we just shared a lot in common in terms of, like, aesthetically looking at clothes. So, one day we just kind of decided.
LO: When was that?
Daphne: About four years ago. This is our fourth season doing shows, but we've actually been doing this for about five. Six, actually. And the first two seasons were trial for us. It was more about getting our feet wet and making sure that we kind of knew what we were doing before we started investing a lot of money in shows and things like that.
LO: How were you funded?
Daphne: Both of us had financial help. I don't think anybody -- unless you're independently wealthy -- I don't think anyone would be able to support this kind of business on a continual basis.
LO: So, you've had help from your parents? Nicole: They help us out quite a bit.
LO: How many employees do you have?
Daphne: None. We do everything ourselves. We don't sew the garments, of course, but we contract people, contract help as we need it. But in terms of organizing and running the entire business, from show to production to everything, to press. Nicole and I pretty much do everything ourselves. And we've never had any full-time employee. They've always been sort of freelance contractors.
LO: Do you plan on hiring anyone?
Nicole: That's our goal. Our goal is to be able to hire several people, you know, to have a staff, and maybe even an assistant, so that when we will be able to focus on the creative end a lot more.
LO: What's the worst thing about being in fashion?
Daphne: I guess the obvious things. The workload. The business. I'd say everything is the worse thing except for the actual creating. Everything else is just horrible. It's such a funny thing because it is a business, and with every business there is PR, there's financial knowledge that you have to deal with.
Nicole: I really like to design, but since we've been doing this, the things that we really love to do, you just never get to do them. It ends up being like the smallest part of your day. Out of each season you might spend like two weeks -- not even -- like probably a week designing.
LO: What do you like about working in fashion? Nicole: [Speechless] I don't know why I can't answer that question. Right now I can't think of anything.
Daphne: I like the idea of sculpting things three-dimensional. And the idea of working on a form and looking at something from all around. And also the power of what clothing can have. I shouldn't really say "power," because it doesn't necessarily have power, but the fact that it can actually represent or express something so powerfully. And depending on how good it makes a person feel, to what it symbolizes. It could be a uniform, or -- it's so representational of so many things and it changes so often. And it could be an incredibly superficial thing. It just has so many different meanings. It's just nice, also, to see people express themselves individually through it.
LO: What are your plans for the future?
Nicole: I think a lot of people get sidetracked on doing a lower priced line in order to support their more expensive line. But the thing is for us we think we need to build up creatively, and also the business side. We need to build up one line. And then when we're really happy with that and that's stable, then we'd like to go into a lower priced line. We'd love to do menswear, accessories, lingerie. We have a lot of plans.
LO: Do you see yourself designing when you're 70?
Daphne: Maybe. Maybe not. Never say never. I wouldn't mind it. If the situation is still good, I definitely would like to continue doing it, but I have so many of my own personal goals. The future is sort of like a question mark. It would be nice to be able to do lots of other things besides just this. I like cooking. I would love to have a restaurant some day. I know for me, anyway, when I first started this and every day was sort of a struggle for us, these interests that you have are the things that kind of keep you going also.


Source: About.Com

Betsey’s World of Fashion and Style!

Betsey was graduated from Syracuse University in 1964.Betsey got a plum position as a guest editor at Mademoiselle, a fashion and life style magazine. In this short stint she impressed everyone, and got a permanent position in the art department. Immediately Betsy was sent to London when Beatle fashion, bell bottom and belly baring knit tops were on pinnacle. There she visited the hub of fashion named Carnaby Street. After returning from London she started designing on those lines what she had witnessed in London. Her fashion ideas, fashion and styles, and celebrity fashion and style created whirl pool in the fashion industry.
She started designing for all branded companies of America. In the 1970s Johnson designed slip dresses, drop-waist ballerina dresses, double knit A-line minis, and "nutsy artsy" embroidered sweaters for the Alley Cat clothing line, then for her own New York shop, Betsey Bunky Nini. Her fashion ideas became the craze among the youngsters. They gave the look of celebrity fashion styles.
1990 was an era of Betsey; she ruled the roof of fashion industry, expanding her empire. She captured the youngsters mostly because her clothing had ‘young look’ in them. Polly Mellen of Allure magazine said: "Her clothes are fun, female, flirty, slightly aggressive and teasing. Her fashion shows are always witty, fun and slightly shoddy. But in the showroom, the clothes are real and the prices right." Betsey told plainly that only her passion for clothing made her come in this limelight otherwise she did not have any brilliant fashion ideas. She just made things with heart and burning passion. Betsey may be floating like this but she ships out every month at least dozens of designs. Johnson was her own fitting model, as he used to wear designs in daily life also.She started with the British Invasion of America style, hopped on the early 1980s punk bandwagon with safety pins and ripped T-shirts, and kept current with the 1990s rave, grunge, medieval, and deconstructionist fashion movements, all of which began on the streets and in music clubs haunted by disenfranchised youth. She simply says: "I've stopped aging in my work 25 years ago."Perhaps it is just that sense of wonder, openness, and a bizarre sense of humor that keeps this over-50 designer in touch with the youthful trends of today.


Betsey was graduated from Syracuse University in 1964.Betsey got a plum position as a guest editor at Mademoiselle, a fashion and life style magazine. In this short stint she impressed everyone, and got a permanent position in the art department. Immediately Betsy was sent to London when Beatle fashion, bell bottom and belly baring knit tops were on pinnacle. There she visited the hub of fashion named Carnaby Street. After returning from London she started designing on those lines what she had witnessed in London. Her fashion ideas, fashion and styles, and celebrity fashion and style created whirl pool in the fashion industry.
She started designing for all branded companies of America. In the 1970s Johnson designed slip dresses, drop-waist ballerina dresses, double knit A-line minis, and "nutsy artsy" embroidered sweaters for the Alley Cat clothing line, then for her own New York shop, Betsey Bunky Nini. Her fashion ideas became the craze among the youngsters. They gave the look of celebrity fashion styles.
1990 was an era of Betsey; she ruled the roof of fashion industry, expanding her empire. She captured the youngsters mostly because her clothing had ‘young look’ in them. Polly Mellen of Allure magazine said: "Her clothes are fun, female, flirty, slightly aggressive and teasing. Her fashion shows are always witty, fun and slightly shoddy. But in the showroom, the clothes are real and the prices right." Betsey told plainly that only her passion for clothing made her come in this limelight otherwise she did not have any brilliant fashion ideas. She just made things with heart and burning passion. Betsey may be floating like this but she ships out every month at least dozens of designs. Johnson was her own fitting model, as he used to wear designs in daily life also.She started with the British Invasion of America style, hopped on the early 1980s punk bandwagon with safety pins and ripped T-shirts, and kept current with the 1990s rave, grunge, medieval, and deconstructionist fashion movements, all of which began on the streets and in music clubs haunted by disenfranchised youth. She simply says: "I've stopped aging in my work 25 years ago."Perhaps it is just that sense of wonder, openness, and a bizarre sense of humor that keeps this over-50 designer in touch with the youthful trends of today.

ACNE-The Pioneer In Fashion Industry

ACNE


Italian born fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli loved to shock and surprise, but perhaps it was in the blood. Her great-Uncle, the astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, shocked the world in 1877 by announcing he had discovered `canals' on Mars.

Born in Rome in 1890, the young Elsa grew up dancing to her own drummer, and ignoring convention. Her interest in exploring the unusual in fashion surfaced early and caused quite a stir. As a young woman, attending a ball in Paris, she created a dress by winding a strip of fabric around her body. Had it not unraveled, she might have started her first popular trend.

Her early marriage at 18 to theosophist William de Wendt de Kerlor came to a shocking end with the birth of a daughter her husband abandoned her, and Elsa found herself alone in Paris with a child to support. This was shocking enough to polite society in the 1920s, but Elsa didn't sit around feeling sorry for herself. She designed a black knitted sweater with a bow tie embellishment, and was soon selling them as fast as her troupe of Armenian knitters could produce them.

Her next shock was for the world of sport, when she opened her first salon in 1927. Called Stupidir de Sport she gave the tennis world a stunning serve with her divided skirt, worn in 1931 by tennis star Lili de Alvarez. As if that didn't shock the conservative ranks of women's' tennis enough, she later introduced shorts to Wimbledon.

But if that wasn't enough, Elsa turned her attention to high fashion and designed clothes in a new hot pink, which she naturally called `shocking' pink

Her love of color became a signature, and she called on surrealist artist Salvador Dali to design new fabrics and even hats imagine wearing a giant shoe on your head, or even a lamb chop as a team, Elsa and Dali brought fun to high fashion.

But Elsa's less outrageous designs became classics of fashion. She was the first to create a dramatic outline for women's bodies using shoulder pads, the first to give zippered clothes a more elegant finish by dyeing the zippers the same colour as the fabric, and the first to use animal print fabrics. Her style and panache may have been shocking, but it was also irresistible. Like shorts for tennis players, her `outrageous' ideas were warmly embraced by women.

Her wide range of interests and love of design soon saw her branching out into jewelry. She loved to experiment with new materials, and by the 30s, she had become one of the fashion world's great icons. She introduced cute buttons,

with shapes as diverse as bunnies and bullets, and the Egyptian Look, with huge sleeves that owed more to the Orient than Egypt. But Elsa didn't care and neither did her public her eclectic designs delighted her clients, who were drawn from among the very famous and wealthy of the time. They included movie stars like Marlene Dietrich and Mae West, and socialites like Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor.

One of her most amazing creations was the famous `lobster dress' of Salvador Dali. It looked like an elegant white organize evening gown except for the vibrant red lobster that Dali painted down the front of the skirt.

She continued to shock and delight with a dress that looked as if it had been repeatedly ripped far in

elegant white organize evening gown except for the vibrant red lobster that Dali painted down the front of the skirt.

She continued to shock and delight with a dress that looked as if it had been repeatedly ripped far in advance of today's `distressed' styles a back-to-front suit and coat printed with profiles by artist Jean Cocteau.

When she decided to create perfumes in the 30s, it was almost inevitable that she would create one called Shocking it became her most famous perfume, and her signature.

So legendary is this fragrance that Schiaparelli France recently recreated it in the original shapely bottle modeled on Mae West.

But the inescapable intervention of World War II proved more shocking than anything Elsa could have devised she was forced to close down her salon for the duration, and when it reopened in 1945, it seemed that the fire and passion had gone, swallowed the horror of six years of war. By the 50s, she was no longer designing clothes, but she took the time to write her autobiography My Shocking Life.

Elsa Schiaparelli died in 1973, and true to her great spirit, she was buried in her favorite outfit, a shocking pink Chinese robe. She was 83, and still fashion's grand dame. But her salon languished for a few years until it was reopened to keep her designs and perfumes available to the legions of women that had grown to love them.

Balenciaga-Today!

Balenciaga today

Balanciaga is always in the fashion news.Surely Balenciaga created latest fashion trends as they call Balenciaga as a legendary in fashion industry. The idea of fashion in Balenciaga fetched very high price later. He changed the direction of fashion styles in ladies fashion. He proved himself as an un destroyable fashion designer!Let me tell you about the the current scenario.


Balenciaga is in the midst of fashion world   In 1986, Jacques Bogart S.A. acquired the rights to Balenciaga, and opened a new ready-to-wear line, Le Dix. The first collection was designed by Michel Goma in October 1987, who remained at the house for the next five years to mixed reviews. He was replaced in 1992 with Dutch designer Josephus Thimister who began the restoration of Balenciaga to an elite, high-fashion status. During Thimister's term, a young Nicolas Ghesquière would join as a license designer, and eventually promoted to head designer in 1997.
Balenciaga is now owned by the Gucci Group (part of PPR), and its womenswear and menswear is headed by Nicolas Ghesquière. Ghesquière, like Balenciaga, is a self-taught designer, and apprenticed to Jean-Paul Gaultier and Agnes B. The hip, fresh interpretation of Balenciaga classics, such as the semifitted jacket and the sack dress, caught the attention of the media as well as such celebrities as Madonna and Sinéad O'Connor.
There was some conflict within the house of Balenciaga on Nicolas Ghesquiere's designs. The Gucci group said that if Balenciaga didn't become profitable within the year 2007, they would replace him. Ghesquière's F/W 2005 line showed that the house was not only profitable, but also attracted a number of celebrity customers including editor-in-chief at Vogue, Anna Wintour.
The house of Balenciaga designed the dresses worn by Jennifer Connelly and Nicole Kidman to the 2006 Academy Awards, as well as the wedding gown Kidman wore for her recent marriage to Keith Urban. Kylie Minogue also wore a Balenciaga dress for her "Slow" and "Red Blooded Woman" music videos and for her concert tour.
Today the brand is most famous for its line of motorcycle-inspired handbags, especially the famous "Lariat." Balenciaga has four exclusive boutiques in the United States. One Balenciaga store is located on 22nd St in New York, NY. A second store is located in Los Angeles, CA on Melrose Avenue. Recently, a third store opened at the famous shopping center South Coast Plaza, in Costa Mesa, CA. This store is 1,200 square feet (110 m2) and includes coffin-like inset displays. The New York and Los Angeles boutiques carry both men's and women's ready-to-wear, while the South Coast Plaza boutique carries only women's clothing. The most recent store, located in Las Vegas inside Caesers Palace, carries only accessories.
Balenciaga's Fall/Winter 2007 show has wowed Teen Voque editor-in-chief Amy Astley so much that an entire recent spread in the magazine, titled "Global Studies" and shot in Beijing, was influenced by it. The line included skinny jodhpurs, tight, fitted blazers, beaded embellished scarves and other multicultural mixes.
Balenciaga is also very well known for creating avant-garde structural pieces, straddling the edge of fashion and forecasting the future of women's ready-to-wear fashion.

Balenciaga-The Most Balanced Designer!

Balenciaga

Readers how about knowing the past designers? So i am thinking of bringing a few to you people.These act really an inspiration to all those budding fashion designers.The determination of these was unruffled! That is how they could reach this height!Let's have a look on Balenciaga.He brought a revolution in fashion industry,fashion styles. His fashion apparels were applauded across the world. He started the idea of fashion for the high society.

Spanish dress designer who created elegant ball gowns and other classic designs.
Balenciaga began seriously studying dressmaking at the age of 10, when the death of his father, a sea captain, made it necessary for his mother to support the family by sewing. His first trip to Paris at 15 inspired him to become a couturier, and by age 20 he had his own dressmaking establishment at the fashionable summer resort of San Sebastián in Spain.
In the next 15 years Balenciaga became the leading couturier of Spain. In 1937, when the Spanish Civil War disrupted his business, he moved to Paris. For the next 30 years his collections featured sumptuously elegant dresses and suits. Balenciaga helped popularize the trend toward capes and flowing clothes without waistlines in the late 1950s and the use of plastic for rainwear in the mid-1960s. In 1968 the house of Balenciaga closed, and he retired.

Cristóbal Balenciaga opened his first boutique with in San Sebastián, Spain, in 1914, which expanded to include branches in Madrid and Barcelona. The Spanish royal family and the aristocracy wore his designs, but when the Spanish Civil War forced him to close his stores, Balenciaga moved to Paris.
Balenciaga opened his Paris couture house on Avenue George V in August 1937, and his first runway show featured designs heavily influenced by the Spanish Renaissance. Balenciaga's success in Paris was nearly immediate. Within two years, the French press lauded him as a revolutionary, and his designs were highly sought-after. Carmel Snow, the editor of Harper's Bazaar was an early champion of his designs.

Badgley Mischka-Fashion Feast

In July 1991 Vogue 's Dodie Kazanjian looked to six designers (including Bill Blass, Donna Karan, and Michael Kors) for the perfect "little black dress," and found it at Badgley Mischka. Her fashion designs gained name and fame.Her idea of fashion is out of the world.
Frances Lear, writing in Lear's (September 1991), also chose a Badgley Mischka wool jersey as the magazine's "Relevant Dress," calling it "reminiscent of other seminal dresses, yet perfectly contemporary…as comfortable as your own skin." Such is the unerring sense of ease and balance in Badgley Mischka designs—they create something expertly vital without superfluidity or trendiness.Fashion apparelsare just attractive. Fashion catwalks are held.
Lilly Daché, the great stylemaker of the 1950s once said, "real fashion begins with simplicity," and Badgley and Mischka employ this manda te, creating clothing that is not only beautifully made but beautiful to wear. By the end of the 20th century the designing duo dominated the eveningwear market, and had begun to make their mark on the bridalwear. Introduced in 1996, their gowns won raves from critics, stores, and brides-to-be.
In addition to eveningwear and bridal gowns, Badgley Mischka wanted to carve a niche in hip streetwear as well. While critics and celebrities crammed the runway for their opulently beaded gowns, many had little interest for the designers' more casual creations. Yet by 2000 their "tough chic" separates in colorful leather with chunky belts and bikerish cool garnered notice. Women's Wear Daily (20 September 2000) enthused, "Mark Badgley and James Mischka have lightened their touch considerably…. Hemlines rose, shapes got sportier and…though the overall effect was more buoyant, their signature sophistication remained. And it was nowhere more apparent than in the white leather-wrapped miniskirt worn with a gold knit t-shirt…and the flirty gold-accented halter dress—all of which fit to perfection."
Another milestone for the designers was opening their first store, in Beverly Hills, in fall 2000. The stylish Rodeo Drive boutique featured all of their signature creations, including their new footwear collection, launched the year before. The designers had plans for additional stores in New York and Florida, and had been negotiating a licensing agreement for a signature fragrance as well. And as if several starlets wearing their wares for the Academy Awards wasn't enough, Badgley and Mischka were awarded the Marymount Designer of the Year award from Marymount University in May 2001.