Fall 2011

Monique Lhuillier and husband, Tom Bugbee, founded the label in 1996 by launching a bridal collection & ready to wear and eveningwear divisions were launched in 2002. Monique Lhuillier fashion designs are chic, glamorous and always luxurious with a corporate culture that thirsts for attention to detail and quality. Unlike the vast majority of labels today, most of the collection is produced in their own facility in Los Angeles.

In the last 10 years, Monique Lhuillier’s designs have brought elegance and style to the wedding aisle of some of Hollywood’s most famous brides. Well known clients of her ready-to-wear line include actresses such as Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Katie Holmes, Jessica Alba and Drew Barrymore.

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In order to attend Parsons School of Design, Tracy Reese moved to New York from her native detroit in 1982, and earned her degree in just 2 years.

After graduating, Tracy worked with many top fashion houses including holding the position of design director for Women’s Portfolio at Perry Ellis.  Launching her own line in 1988, today, her designs can be found in high end retailers across the US including Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom as well as overseas in Europe and Asia.

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Fashion designer Carolina Herera has been creating her visions of style and elegance for over 30 years. In 2008 she was the winner in the 2008 CFDA Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award.

Her fashion empire encompasses her signature fashion collection, a bridal collection, fragrances and accessories with sales in the U.S., South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Far East.  Without ever realizing what it would turn into, Carolina started her journey because she loved fashion. Born in Venezuela, she created a test collection in 1981 and after its success, she moved to New York and the rest is history.

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Zang Toi was born and raised in a small village in Kelantan, the youngest of seven children of a grocer.  After leaving his native Malaysia at the age of eighteen, Zang arrived in New York and at the age of 20, began his studies at Parsons School of Design.  In August 1989, he opened his atelier and soon after, Zang was awarded the 1990 Mouton Cadet Young Designer of the Year award which recognizes the top, young U.S. designer of the year.  In a Newsday article published in 1991, Frank de Car enthusiastically noted of the Malaysian-born designer and his success, “If anyone is THE NEXT BIG THING, it’s him.”  (Newsday, New York, 29 April 1991)

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Fashion designer Derek Lam was born in San Francisco, and is 4th generation Chinese American. Growing up the youngest of three children, his parents had a business that imported clothes from Asia. Additionally, his grandparents ran a garment factory that focused on bridal and wedding dresses where he would sit with the seamstresses watching them create wedding gowns as a child.

After graduating from Parsons School of Design in 1990, Lam began working as an assistant for Michael Kors and spent four years at Kors. Then after moving to Hong Kong to work for a large retail brand, he returned to New York and was appointed vice President of Design for Michael Kors’ Kors line.

Derek launched his own label with his debut at the New York Fashion Week in September 2003. In 2005, Lam won the CFDA Perry Ellis Swarovski Award for new designers and started his own line of clothes. In addition to clothes, Derek Lam also has a line of shoes and jewlery. In February 2010, Lam opened his online store retailing an edited collection of ready-to-wear and accessories.

This year, Karlie Kloss walked for his Fall 2011 collection at the Lincoln Center.

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Toni was born in Badalona, Barcelona, and felt attracted by fashion since he was a child. His mother was dressmaker and he grew up between threads and patterns. He studied fashion design at Instituto de la Moda in Barcelona at eighteen an inmediately after he began working in the family business, while in 1992 he created his own brand.

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Cynthia Rowley constructed her first dress when she was seven years old. Her intuitive technical skill paired with a love of “making things” led her into an undergraduate degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she began to pursue a career in fashion. Cynthia has appeared on “Project Runway” and “America’s Next Top Model,” and her work has been featured in nearly every major magazine and newspaper domestically and internationally. She has received an award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) for her women’s collection as well as an acknowledgment from the Council for her menswear designs. Her designs are available in better department stores as well as in around sixty Cynthia Rowley stores world wide.

As a best-selling author of the Swell series, Cynthia has five books to date; her most recent, Slim: A Fantasy Memoir, was published by Rizzoli and includes her original drawings. She is a mother to two daughters and is married to Bill Powers, co-owner of HALF Gallery and judge on Bravo’s competition series “Work Of Art.”.

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Nicole Miller, with a background in both art and haute couture fashion design, has 15 free standing stores across the US and with her designs available at 1,200 stores world wide. With varied interests in visual expression, Nicolle is an avid collector of artists like Andy Warhol, Ross Bleckner, Ellen Gallagher, Damien Loeb & David Salle and she has a passion for mid-century modern furniture.

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In 1985, with the assistance of a controversial marketing move in Times Square naming Tommy Hilfiger as one of the top four fashion designers America, he introduced his first signature menswear collection.

Born the second of nine children in Elmira, New York, Hilfiger’s career in fashion began as a high school student in 1969 when he opened a small chain of stores called People’s Place with just $150. His goal was to bring fashion from New York and London to upstate New York. Self taught, he soon began designing for the boutiques he had always admired.

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