The French designer has always been known for playing with androgyny in his work. JEAN PAUL GAULTIER Designer Jean Paul Gaultier attends the ‘Vogue Who’s On Next’ awards photo call at Gran Maestre Theatre on in Madrid, Spain. He travelled everywhere with a bevy of his favourite models, dubbed “the Halstonettes,” all wearing his designs. Yes, almost four decades ago, Halston was pioneering a modern day concept - the Influencer.ĥ.
The mystique of the Halston brand was also fuelled by his hedonistic lifestyle, which included nights at Studio 54 with pals that included Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minnelli and Bianca Jagger - often wearing his clothes. The Halston look arrived on the scene the same moment women were liberating their bodies by going bra-less, looking for comfort and glamour with multi-tasking clothes that could take them from day to evening. Often zipper-less and slinky, it was all about ease and being unabashedly sexy. His designs were minimal, modern and elegant. The hat would become a defining style moment of the First Lady.īy the time the 70s rolled around, the milliner would become known as the glamorous fashion designer, Halston. The earliest indication that a milliner by the name of Roy Halston Frowick would go on to become one of America’s greatest designers was in 1961, when Jackie Kennedy wore one of his pillbox hats to her husband John F. Photo: Robin Platzer / IMAGES / Getty Images HALSTON Liza Minnelli with designer Halston circa 1982 in New York City. Armani, suits today can be languid yet evoke power.ģ. For female suitings, he did the same thing, making it fluid and softening the shoulders, essentially taking away the sharp edges of power dressing. Rather than an imposing rigid jacket, he made the garment drape softly along the body. He was the first designer to literally take the stuffiness and stiffness out of men’s jackets with the removal of the lining and introduction of innovative fabrics.
The Armani label got a huge boost in North America when Richard Gere wore his clothes in the 1980 movie American Gigolo. The brand would be featured in over 100 movies and television shows, including The Untouchables and Miami Vice. During the 80s, the Armani label was a favourite of Hollywood power brokers and would become a symbol of success.īut it was his re-invention of men’s suiting which resonated beyond the silver screen and the red carpets to infiltrate even the wardrobes of the Everyday Man with something called the Unstructured Suit. Not bad for someone who started his fashion career as a window dresser for an Italian department store. Today, his net worth is more than US$8 billion. The 86-year-old designer continues to oversee nearly every aspect of the vast empire he created over four decades ago, which now includes hotels, restaurants and home furnishings. GIORGIO ARMANI Fashion designer Giorgio Armani walks the runway during the Giorgio Armani Prive Haute Couture Fall Winter 2018/2019 show as part of Paris Fashion Week. Today, le smoking is a classic - and a veritable sartorial workhorse in many a woman’s wardrobe.Ģ. It would pave the way for his pantsuits just as women were entering corporate culture and ready for power dressing. Not only was it androgynous, but also sexy and powerful. In 1966, he introduced Le Smoking - a tuxedo look for women. But there was one look he designed - which proved shocking at the time - that not only revolutionized the way women dressed but also signalled sweeping social change.