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Habitual  |
L.A. cult denim brand Habitual was founded by husband-and-wife team Michael and Nicole Colovos, now the head designers for Helmut Lang. Michael, a freelance designer, and Nicole, a former market editor for Harper’s Bazaar, launched the label in 2001. Fans flocked for the flattering fit and design details like the Maltese cross on the back pockets. Every piece of Habitual denim is hand-finished, with months spent perfecting the right wash. Each season, a new mantra is sewn into the waistbands and jacket and pocket linings. |
Helmut Lang  |
Helmut Lang fashions were sold in upscale department stores and through select retailers, as well as in signature Helmut Lang stores around the world. In 1999, Lang entered into a partnership with Prada Group which resulted in the acquisition of the Helmut Lang brand by Prada in 2004, and Mr. Lang's departure from the label in 2005. Prada, however, struggled with the brand and consequently sold it to Link Theory of Japan in 2006. Link Theory re-launched the Helmut Lang label with nw designers in 2007. Since then, Helmut Lang fashions have been available again at upscale department stores and signature Helmut Lang boutiques worldwide. |
Hermes |
Hermès began as a harness workshop in Paris in 1837. By the twenties, Hermès had the patent for the zipper in France, and introduced the first ladies’ bags with zip closures, and in 1937, the first Hermès silk scarves were born. The company expanded into riding gloves, belts, and men’s and women's sportswear, and designed the now-famous travel trunks to meet the needs of the new automobile drivers. In the seventies, the first women's shoe collection and the first complete men's ready-to-wear collection were introduced. There are over 240 Hermès boutiques internationally. |
Hervé Léger |
Hervé Léger was a huge fashion hit in the '80s and pioneered the body-con look, which has returned to the fashion spotlight in recent seasons. The label was relaunched in 2007 with BCBG designer Max Azria at the helm. His designs are a modern interpretation of the signature bandage dress and have already earned a host of stylish celebrity fans including Kate Bosworth and Keira Knightley. |
Hugo Boss  |
In 1945 Hugo Boss was charged with being sympathetic to the Nazi cause and using forced labor, and was denied the right to vote in Germany and ordered to pay a fine. The business turned its hand to making suits. The timing was perfect, as the male fashion industry was just establishing itself and through the 60's and 70's Hugo Boss suits became the benchmark for quality, fashionable menswear. |
Hussein Chalayan  |
Hussein Chalayan was born in Nicosia in 1970 and graduated from the Turkish Maarif College of his hometown. He moved with his family having moved to England in 1978, obtaining British citizenship and proceeded to study design in London. His graduate collection in 1993, titled "The Tangent Flows", contained clothes which he had buried in his back yard and dug up again. An instant sensation, the whole collection was purchased and displayed in luxury designer store Browns in London. His achievements have not gone unnoticed. He was crowned 'British Designer of the Year' in 1999 and 2000. |
Iceberg |
Iceberg is an Italian luxury fashion design house. Founded in 1962 by Silvio and Giuliana Gerani, the house produces women’s prêt-a-porter, accessories, and fragrances. It is part of the Gilmar group. Its headquarters are in San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy, and it has boutiques and outlets in cities across Europe, primarily in Italy but also in London, Paris, Moscow, Kiev, and in Kuwait City and Dubai. Starting as knitwear specialists, Iceberg were an early proponent of the concept of fashionable sportswear, later expanding into leatherwear and jeans. |
Isaac Mizrahi |
Brooklyn-born designer Isaac Mizrahi launched his eponymous clothing label in 1986. The Mizrahi label encompasses womenswear, menswear, home furnishings, shoes, and handbags. From 2003 to 2008, it was also widely recognized for Mizrahi’s partnership with Target, for whom he created a line of apparel, accessories, and home furnishings. Mizrahi relaunched his couture collection in New York to great acclaim in 2003. Always a proponent of color, wearability, and feminine fun, Mizrahi’s latest collections are luxurious and sophisticated. |
Isabel Toledo |
Although Isabel Toledo has been producing her line since the mid-eighties, it wasn't until First Lady Michelle Obama wore her designs—including the lemongrass inaugural suit—that the critically lauded label garnered national name recognition. Alongside husband, collaborator, and he-muse Ruben, Toledo sketches out her designs in their midtown loft, which functions as living quarters, studio, and boutique. The look is structured with intricate details and modest hemlines and necklines. |
IZOD |
In 1953, David Crystal, the owner of IZOD, bought 50% of the rights to market Lacoste in America. The resulting union of the two companies was the piqué polo/tennis shirt. When the shirts began to sell well, Crystal decided to keep the combined name. The brand hit its peak popularity in the late 70's and early 80's and then the 50% share of Lacoste was sold in the 90's. IZOD and Lacoste both continue to produce similar piqué polo shirts, and are often mistakenly believed to be the same company. |
J. Lindeberg |
J. Lindeberg (operating as JL), is a Swedish clothing company marketed as a 21st Century lifestyle brand. Currently, J.Lindeberg is distributed in over 20 countries and available at flagship stores in New York, Los Angeles, Stockholm, Tokyo, Kyoto and Hong Kong. J.Lindeberg's clothes are popular among golfers, and are worn by PGA stars |
Jean Paul Gaultier |
Jean Paul Gaultier is known as one of the industry’s master tailors, with a knack for tuxes, trenches, and leather, and a tendency to embrace equestrian, military, and royal tropes—all with a sense of fun. Gaultier created a successful fragrance line, packaged in his signature torso-shaped bottles. His first couture collection didn’t come until 1997, but has been critically acclaimed since its beginnings. In 1999, Hermès bought 35 percent of the Jean Paul Gaultier company and in 2004, Hermès hired him as head womenswear designer for the label. |
Jill Stuart |
Launched in 1993, Jill Stuart’s line, then called Skinclothes, is said to have really taken off when pieces from the collection were used in the movie Clueless. Stuart received major attention in 2007 for using Lindsay Lohan as the first celebrity in her ads. The feminine, sometimes frilly collection can be found in her Soho flagship, as well as in higher-end department stores, and has come to include handbags, shoes, and perfume. |
Jimmy
Choo  |
Jimmy Choo was born in Penang, Malaysia into a family of shoemakers. He made his first shoe when he was 11 years old. He is perhaps the most notable of students of Cordwainers Technical College in London from which he graduated in 1983. The college is now part of the London College of Fashion. He came to the verge of international notability when his creations were featured in a record eight pages in a 1988 issue of Vogue magazine. Patronage from Diana, Princess of Wales from 1990 onwards further boosted his image. In 1996, he co-founded Jimmy Choo Ltd with British Vogue accessories editor Tamara Mellon. |
John Galliano |
Ever since his Central Saint Martin’s graduate show, John Galliano has generated buzz—both for his wild persona and his fantastical runway shows. In addition to over a decade at the helm of Christian Dior, he has held fast to his eponymous label, which includes sunglasses and fragrance. With the enewal of his Dior contract, the John Galliano label is going under the LVMH umbrella, ensuring an even higher profile for the designer, whose era-juggling, sensibility-mixing collections keep him at the tip-top of high fashion. |
Jones New York |
Jones New York is the original brand under Jones Apparel Group, an American designer, marketer and wholesaler of branded clothing, shoes and accessories. Although its headquarters are in Bristol, Pennsylvania, it maintains 4 offices in New York City. The company also markets directly to consumers through their chain of specialty retail and value-based stores. In addition, it markets costume jewelry under the Givenchy brand licensed from Givenchy Corporation. |
Judith Leiber  |
Judith Leiber is a world-renowned designer of handbags. She escaped the Holocaust of World War II. After the war, she began making handbags at home and then at a friend's small factory. She met and married an American soldier, Gerson Leiber, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1948. Leiber founded her own business in 1963 and quickly established herself as an industry leader at the cutting edge of luxurious fashion. Sold at exclusive boutiques around the world, her handbags cost several thousand dollars and have become a status symbol for many women. |
Juicy
Couture  |
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away called Pacoima, there were two nice girls who set out to create the perfect girlie collection. Juicy Couture swept the land and they lived happily ever after. Juicy Couture is a contemporary line of casual apparel based in Pacoima, California, founded by Gela Nash-Taylor and Pamela Skaist-Levy. Owned by the Liz Claiborne fashion company, Juicy is known for their terrycloth and velour tracksuits as well as leather and terrycloth purses. |
Karl Lagerfeld |
Karl Lagerfeld is a German-born fashion designer and artist based in Paris, France. He has collaborated on a variety of fashion and art related projects, most notably as head designer and creative director for the fashion house Chanel. Lagerfeld helms his own label fashion house, as well as the Italian house Fendi. |
Kate Spade  |
Kate Spade met her future husband, Andy Spade, a native of Scottsdale, Arizona, while working side-by-side as salespersons in a men's clothing store, Carter's Men Shop in Phoenix.They were married in 1994. They launched their New York-based design company "kate spade handbags" in January 1993, selling mainly handbags. |
Kay Unger |
Kay Unger is currently the creative head and public face of Phoebe Company and its brands; Kay Unger New York, Phoebe Couture, Unger by Kay Unger and Kay J’s by Kay Unger. Modeling the client after herself, Kay set out to fill a void in the fashion industry for “clean dinner dresses.” In 1972, along with her two business partners, Howard Bloom and Jon Levy, she founded The Gillian Group. Kay sold her dresses under the Gillian label, where the group and its many divisions quickly became one of the largest suppliers of women’s apparel in America. |
Kenneth Cole |
Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. was born in 1982, when Kenneth Cole went broke. The designer had spent all his money making shoes in Europe, but when he came back to his native New York, he had no place to sell them—and no money to open a store. Enlisting the help of a friend with a giant truck, Cole nabbed permission to park it in midtown and sell shoes by applying for a film permit; the fictitious film had the audacious title “The Birth of a Shoe Company.” The stunt helped sell 40,000 shoes in two days, and created a company, a legend, and an empire. Kenneth Cole now encompasses three lines. |
Kookai |
Kookai is a French fashion label founded in 1983 by Jean-Lou Tepper, Jacques Nataf and Philippe de Hesdin. It has a simple philosophy: "to supply young women with affordable apparel for their wardrobes". It has stores in Europe, Asia, America and Australia. Its clothing line is generally characterised by French fashion trends. |
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