Designers of Tomorrow
Ever since the days of Greta Garbo, fashion designers have looked to celebrities for inspiration. Today’s designers are no different. Karl Lagerfeld and Calvin Klein are fascinated with Lindsay Lohan, Halle Berry has the starring role in Versace’s spring/summer ad campaign and Marc Jacobs, who famously picks among a variety of obscure muses from Lil’ Kim to Sofia Coppola, has recently signed White Stripes drummer Meg White as the face of his upcoming campaign.
“No matter what designers say, they’re still inspired by the stars,” says George Simonton, ready-to-wear designer and professor of fashion design at NYC’s Fashion Institute of Design, and whose clients include Katie Couric and Laura Bush. “It’s still a celebrity world.”
That might be true, and stylist Amanda Reno, who works with Carmen Electra, Virginia Madsen and Kristin Cavallari, says celebrities are the first place designers go for inspiration. “Designers know how important it is to get their clothes on these women. The customers who shop at Barneys and Saks are looking to these stars for inspiration for what they’re buying and wearing.”
Are stars today inspirational or influential?—that’s the question, says Christopher Crawford, co-designer of the contemporary ready-to-wear line Christopher Deane. “Celebrities are more important today because models aren’t even a factor anymore,” he says. “[Celebrities are] influential because anytime you can get a dress on a star, you get hundreds if not thousands of inquiries about that particular dress. But I don’t find them inspirational.”
Certainly, sometimes there’s an obvious source of inspiration, such as Yves Saint Laurent’s Mondrian-inspired dresses in the 1960s. But designers can be inspired by anything—a movie, book, art, travel and just daily life.
“When I’m in Europe, I just sit in the cafes and watch people,” Simonton says. “The men and women there look effortless.”
Cynthia Rowley recalls one of her designs, a jacket the color of her father’s eyes—Paul Newman blue. “A color will just jump out at me. It can be anything, but when you see it, it is really inspiring.”
We spoke to a variety of designers about what inspired their fall 2006 collections—and here’s what they revealed:
*Christopher Deane’s Crawford says he and co-designer Angela Deane were inspired by gothic influences from old photos in Prague. “The colors tend to be a bit darker with a lot of black, charcoal, deep rose and navy.”
*Psychology and exploration of the mind inspired Rowley. “Fashion is cyclical and is always drawing from history. It is inevitable that you will go back to your youth,” Rowley says.
*Junk food and pop art inspired Jeremy Scott’s fall collection. “It’ll be like an 8-year-old girl’s fantasy couture fashion show,” Scott says. “I liked the idea of the food fight and … throwing food in a cafeteria. It sounds like hamburger against hotdog and I thought it was kind of funny and it just inspired me.” Expect things like “ice cream bustiers and spaghetti straps,” he says.
*For Nicole Romano, a painting by Joseph Mallord William Turner, “Hannibal Crossing the Alps” (1812), struck her. “The painting is gorgeous and has that dark sort of twist,” she says. “I chose my color palette based on the landscape—there’s dusty and misty teal blues and lavenders.”
*Nashville-based designer Manuel Cuevas Jr. says he was inspired by his Mexican heritage. “Flamboyant colors are prevalent in the fall collection—lots of oranges, reds and pastels used in conjunction with a lot of embroideries and rhinestones.”
* “Bucolic Elegance for the City Girl” is how Paris-based designer Afshin Feiz describes his fall collection. “I was inspired by a girl who grew up in the country and moves to the city,” Feiz says. “So there [are] references to the country but in a citified way. The clothes are chic city girl with sweet details.”
*Contemporary designer Beth Bowley says the movies The Godfather, Scarface and Breakfast on Pluto and the 1930s inspired her fall collection. “It’s an odd mix, but I was feeling ’70s mixed with ’30s. I like the longer tops and menswear influences from the ’70s and the details and fabrics from the ’30s.”
*Bridal designer Henry Roth says everything from the hip-hop artist Nelly to the rudeness of NYC taxidrivers to riding the subway inspired him. “Humanity inspires me,” he says. “I walk around Central Park and look at the beauty of what’s around me and I’m inspired.”