Pursuit of Style

Advice and Musings from America's Top Fashion Designers

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• Publisher: Abrams
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781419706219
• eBook ISBN: 9781613125908
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Fashion Design

Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Style is an all-new, original collection of clever, charming, and often hilarious musings from American fashions biggest designers. The book culls the best pieces of advice and insight from a survey conducted by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) of its 400-plus members, including Diane von Furstenberg, Zac Posen, Betsey Johnson, Narciso Rodriguez, Donna Karan, and Ralph Lauren, among many others. From tips and tricks for breaking into a fashion career, to essential wardrobe items, to favorite words of wisdom, this book provides a glimpse inside the fashion worlds most creative minds and offers readers an endless amount of inspiration. Illustrated by Bil Donovan, this stylish package is the must-have fashion gift book of the season.

PART 2

career

I KNEW I WANTED TO BE A DESIGNER WHEN

I put on my mother’s fur coat at five and refused to take it off

—ADRIENNE LANDAU

I got my first Vogue subscription, at nine

—ARAKS YERAMYAN

My father took me to NYC to buy his fabrics when I was five years old

—BARRY BRICKEN

I hit NYC in 1964

—BETSEY JOHNSON

My father offered me a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses at age fifteen (in 1974, when they were not available yet in Europe)

—CHRISTIAN ROTH

I saw Cher on TV

—DAVID MEISTER

I started making dresses

—DIANE VON FURSTENBERG

I learned about great designers from a lecture on “history of fashion” at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

—GEMMA KAHNG

I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum as a child

—GEORGINA CHAPMAN

I was a young child, helping my father in his atelier

—GILLES MENDEL

I put on my first fashion show at sixteen years old. I turned the dining-room table into a stage and my sisters were my models. It got rave reviews!

—BRIAN ATWOOD

At eight everyone was looking at me because I dressed so differently and then I realized the power of clothes

—CATHERINE MALANDRINO

I saw the Disney Cinderella movie around six years old. After watching the scene of the birds and mice putting together a dress for Cinderella, I ran to my grandmother’s closet and started cutting her lace silk sleeping gowns to make the same dress.

—GABRIELA PEREZUTTI

I figured out I could mold metal and use my sculptor skills to make jewelry

—ISAAC MANEVITZ

My sister home-sewed a bad shift dress in 1969

—JAMES PURCELL

I reworked my school uniform every day

—JOHN BARTLETT

I started designing clothes inspired by my favorite rock-’n’-roll icons

—TOMMY HILFIGER

I traveled to London in 1964 and saw that every rule in fashion, music, and culture had been broken.

—NORMA KAMALI

I fell in love with figure skating and designed my own costume

—VERA WANG

I looked at a garment and sketched a way to improve it

—MAXWELL OSBORNE

I wanted to design things I was missing

—TORY BURCH

Always. It is part of my DNA.

—JUDITH RIPKA

I saw Shirley MacLaine wearing Edith Head’s extraordinary costumes in the film What a Way to Go!

—KENNETH BONAVITACOLA

I knew exactly what I wanted to wear, but I couldn’t find it at the mall

—LAUREN MOFFATT

I spent a high school summer at Parsons School of Design in NYC

—LISA JENKS

Always. I would design and create couture for my dolls when I was a child....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• FOREWORD DIANE VON FURSTENBERG
• INTRODUCTION
• CONTRIBUTORS
• style
• career
• love
• life
• CFDA MEMBERS
• Copyright Page