In Fashion Part 7

LANGUAGES: Technical tailoring and fabric French helpful.

STARTING COMP: Nada to negative (somebody has to buy the fabric).

POTENTIAL COMP: $ to $$$$$.

PERKS: "Friendships" with Hollywood actresses who love fashion connections. The possibility of dressing Mich.e.l.le Obama, who has been hugely supportive of young, diverse Seventh Avenue talent. The chance of finding a patron or muse who invites you into her fab life and homes. Direct links to newspapers, magazines, photographers, stylists, models, stores-all the other realms of the fashion business.

How Can a Young Designer Make It Today?

"Cut a CD," advises Nicole Miller in answer to my question, only half jokingly referring to personalities like Beyonce Knowles, Sean John, Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Lopez, Paris Hilton, Charlotte Ronson, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake who have launched their own clothing lines with automatic fanfare, built-in creds, and an instant audience because they're, well, already famous.

"The most fantastic thing in this country is the internship," enthuses Diane von Furstenberg, the designer as well as president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). She notes that she has a long waiting list of young people from all over the world wishing to be interns at her company. "It's old-fashioned advice, but it still works today. People will notice you if you are the first to arrive in the morning and the last to leave in the evening. That was the advice given to a friend of mine in Hollywood from his grandfather. He was from the South and knew no one there. He followed that advice and became very successful. If a job opens up and you have proven yourself, you might get the job. More important for you is the experience. You need that experience and having people around you who bring you up in your craft."

Unlike Diane or Nicole, I never dreamed of becoming a designer. Far from it. Sewing a b.u.t.ton on a shirt is frustrating for me. In a pathetic attempt to be a liberated woman/intellectual sn.o.b, I treated home economics like the biggest time-sink on the planet. Because my mother is an excellent seamstress, creating for me pastel boucle Easter coats with matching bonnets, smocked red velvet Christmas dresses, and Swiss dot summer shifts, and because I wanted to be anything but handy like her. Because I was impatient and probably actually left-handed but made to work with my right hand, I was patently bad and drew no pleasure at all from handiwork. Because of all of the above sorry excuses, I cut myself off from a world that I may have enjoyed exploring. Or, at the very least, I could have learned the essentials of hemming, ironing, and b.u.t.ton sewing and saved myself a load of embarra.s.sment, frustration, time, and money.

But because I'm sorely lacking in these skills, I admire all the more the vision, talent, endurance, and, ultimately, success of the designers I've known through the years, like my girlfriend Nicole Miller and longtime acquaintance Diane von Furstenberg, as well as Ralph Lauren, and Calvin Klein, with whom I've worked in various capacities and known over the years.

Sitting in Nicole's office over lunch one day, I witness a calm, a.s.sured designer in action. We first dissect the mock-up of a fragrance ad on her desk, and I dab a drop of the scent sample onto the inside of my wrist. Then, while we chitchat and shovel sushi into our mouths, a parade of employees slip in and out of her open door seeking direction or approval. A seamstress drops off a gorgeous pair of black leather paneled briefs with a back zip that Vogue had requested Nicole design at the last minute for a shoot. The designer gently asks the woman to place them on her armchair, away from the spray of soy sauce. Next, Nicole nods in approval as one a.s.sistant appears carrying large rolls of solid chiffons she'd chosen to line two different beaded chiffon fabrics. A print designer brings in three large square fabric samples, each different versions of a purple, black, and white spot print. Nicole says she wants the one with the white outlining the other colors, without really even looking. (I get the sense that it was the one she'd asked for at the beginning of the process and hadn't actually needed to review.) Just then another a.s.sistant enters to ask whether she can give away a bunch of samples to the staff-never-produced items from a previous collection-holding up a teal cotton jersey top with bronze metal squares adorning the neck as visual evidence of the goods. The lovely lady who makes lunch for the staff every Friday slips in with an open Cuban cookbook so that Nicole can scan the recipes and okay that week's menu. Before long, Nicole's business partner Bud appears to comment on the pandemonium going on at the sample giveaway that apparently was already under way. In amongst the fabrics, samples, groovy girls, and seasoned seamstresses, Bud cuts a fresh, preppy figure. From Nicole's waste bin, I fish out the color printout of yesterday's top selling ten dresses that Nicole had probably scanned when she first arrived that morning with her coffee. Then, before I leave, Nicole slips on the paneled leather briefs (think 1960s, constructed bikini bottom) over her heels and lace pattern tights to check the fit before sending them off with an a.s.sistant for the four-block hike to the Conde Nast building: Not only does Nicole look model-hot in them, she has had the luxury of overseeing the entire process of making the item right here under one roof in her own Seventh Avenue offices, from her pencil ill.u.s.tration to patternmaking, cutting, and sewing and final fit. Together with Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera, Nicole counts among the handful of designers who continue to have this capacity. How much fun and how satisfying must that be? And this has been just one hour in the creative professional life of designer Nicole Miller. By the time I gather up my things, Nicole has already moved on: She is leaning over a belted jacket, talking b.u.t.tons.

To get the full picture of the world of fashion design, I also went inside fashion schools, roamed the halls, listened to conversations, sat in on cla.s.ses, chatted with students. I spent days with fashion school deans, professors, and internship placement officers to learn about the fantasies of students' expectations and the reality of today's job market. I talked to the interns and to their bosses to hear the nitty-gritty of what really goes on.

So if you are not JLo or JT, how do you enter the world of fashion design? Let's begin by looking at some of today's best-known designers and see how they got their starts.

Halston, the son of an Iowa accountant, was first a milliner (made hats), then was a window dresser, before creating daring minimal, s.e.xy, single-seam jersey dresses that have scandalized most good Midwestern folk, like his own. New York City was where he needed to be. Here, Halston, a strikingly gorgeous man, was a Studio 54 regular alongside pop culture luminaries like Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger. While the same crazy nightlife that so clearly inspired his collections was likely his undoing, no great collection ever came from the mind of a recluse.

Donna Karan, whose father was a tailor and mother a model, graduated from Hewlett High School in Long Island, then attended Parsons School of Design, leaving after two years to work for Anne Klein. Donna rose to became head of the Anne Klein design team, finally breaking from the label after fifteen years to launch her own eponymous brand.

The catalytic concept behind the Donna Karan label "Seven easy pieces," bodysuits, knit skirts, and dresses was a feminine, but strongly empowered, vision for how modern women could dress. The fact that Donna herself was a young, modern, appealing woman dressing other professional women based on how she herself wanted to feel and look proved hugely appealing in a marketplace dominated by male designers. It was and remains her niche.

Calvin Klein, an FIT dropout, made a rack of clothes and rolled it right into a Fifty-seventh Street department store to get his first order. A marketing genius beyond compare, Calvin's defining trait was the ability to capture edgy, novel movements in popular culture in his collection and his advertising images. Calvin himself would be present at photo shoots directing the nuances of efforts as iconographic as his early jeans campaign starring Brooke Shields ("Nothing comes between Me and my Calvins") to Marky Mark in Calvin briefs to Kate Moss in Obsession fragrance campaigns. That Calvin, himself a tall, lanky, handsome guy, had at his side his best childhood friend, Barry Schwartz, running the business side of things was a key ingredient to his success.

Ralph Lauren had an unlikely fashion start. Born Ralph Lipschitz, the son of Jewish immigrants from Belarus, Ralph studied business for two years at Baruch College before serving in the U.S. Army. Ralph's first job in fashion was as a salesman for Brooks Brothers. He then opened his own necktie store, where, among other brands, he sold his own ties under the Polo label. Movie-star handsome, Ralph Lauren's singular genius is that he understands that the glamour of his fantasy world of Out of Africa-like safaris, the wild West, Gatsby-esque glamour, and grand English old-school style would translate into the pristine beauty and appeal of Polo Ralph Lauren. For Ralph, it's all about mining the past to push our highly sensitive b.u.t.tons of cultural aspiration.

Ralph has had no formal design training and does not sketch his collection, but "dreams it" instead. Ralph Lauren has created a "family" business in which his brother, Peter Lauren (who, like his older brother, also changed his name), works on the men's business and his son, David Lauren, helped create the hugely effective Internet effort and oversees advertising and public relations. In addition, Ralph has a fiercely loyal core team whom he trusts completely.

A financial success beyond all others, Ralph Lauren, Inc., is a publicly traded New York Stock Exchange $13 billion juggernaut of a company, of which Ralph owns a large stake. Jackpot.

Miuccia Prada is the youngest grandchild of a respected Milanese luggage maker, Mario Prada, whose shop in Milan's famous nineteenth-century Galleria shopping arcade still bears his name. But Miuccia (born Maria Biancha; "Miuccia" is a name of endearment) was a child of the 1960s. She studied politics, earning a degree in political science, and did not envision a role for herself amid the fine goatskin Prada suitcases until she was well into her thirties. Together with her husband and business partner, Patrizio Bertelli, a Tuscan entrepreneur, Miuccia discovered high-tech parachute nylon and began designing simple black and navy windbreakers, rain jackets, and parkas that were soon discovered by locals and then the fashion cognoscenti at her grandfather's luggage shop. Almost overnight, the Prada brand ignited into an international powerhouse.

Giorgio Armani dropped out of medical school to become an a.s.sistant at the Milan department store La Rinasceute and then at Cerruti, starting his own label ten years later with the help of his partner, Sergio Galeotti. Armani created the label synonymous with corporate power and Hollywood in the 1980s, most notably as the uniform of choice of women who had risen to executive ranks in banking and industry. His distinctive understated grays and greens and fluid designs marked both his men's and women's collections, which continue to be both strikingly handsome, quietly luxurious, and tasteful. Today, still privately held by the famously shy Mr. Armani and a small number of family members, the company curates hotels, furniture, and home designs, as well as a custom collection show in Paris during the Couture. Guessing who will eventually succeed the seventy-something Armani is a favorite parlor game among fashionistas.

Gianni Versace grew up in Sicily helping his mother, Francesca, a dressmaker. His older brother, Santo, and younger sister, Donatella, proved instrumental in shaping the Versace fashion house. Versace's vision of women couldn't have been more different from Armani's: Where Armani explores androgyny in his designs for women, Versace celebrates s.e.xy, unabashed, powerful, and sometimes extremely exaggerated femininity. Clean, optimistic color marks his clothing as did brash advertising campaigns shot by Avedon featuring 1980s and 1990s supermodels and music celebrities like Elton John, Prince, and Courtney Love. His life ended tragically at age fifty when Mr. Versace was murdered in front of his Miami mansion by a spree killer. Since then, Donatella has led the design of the collections, and Santo, the business.

Diane von Furstenberg, the daughter of a Russian father and a Jewish mother (who had survived the Holocaust), has had an amazing fairy tale life and brilliant career. A bewitchingly beautiful woman, Diane was born and raised in Belgium, and she studied economics at the University of Geneva. At eighteen, she married Prince Egon von Furstenberg, and she was thereby bestowed with the t.i.tle of princess. In quick succession, she gave birth to two ent.i.tled children, Alexandre and Tatiana von Furstenberg. Determined not to let what would turn out to be the short-lived marriage and t.i.tle define her, Diane, with no formal design training, created a s.e.xy, easy, colorful knit jersey "wrap dress" in 1972 that would sell millions and land her on the cover of Newsweek magazine. Over this time of unbelievable success, Diane developed many lucrative licensing partnerships, but after many successful years, the fashion label itself took a decade-long break. In 1997, Diane relaunched her business to a new audience hungry for her feminine jersey dresses and iconic colorful prints to even bigger acclaim than the first time around.

Five Key Qualities That Great Designers Usually Possess

1. They Have Charisma

Nearly all designers are physically beautiful, appealing people. At the very least, they are audacious and original. In this highly visual world, it's hard to think of a designer who doesn't have a signature or recognizable look. In addition, most are natural self-promoters, and many possess an amazing verbal fluidity as well as exude an alluring quality akin to a rock star or movie star. The responsibility that comes along with public status is tricky and invasive. Once a designer puts her name on a garment and people are buying and wearing that garment, she is officially a public person on a public stage. Every time you go to the beach, run for a bus, buy a doughnut from a sidewalk cart, you need to embody the carefully crafted persona that is your brand. And you need to be nice and genuine to people who want to connect with you.

2. They Develop a Defining Style

This is about owning a look that has never existed before, like Halston's single-seam jersey dresses, Donna Karan's jersey power dressing in separates, Diane von Furstenberg's wrap print silk jersey dresses, Galliano's bias-cut dresses, Calvin Klein's architecturally minimal designs, and Armani's flowing women's suits. This is about expressing a fresh, personal vision for how women or men will want to look and dress and to attract a group of people who want to work for you, partner with you, and buy in to this vision.

3. They Live in the Moment

The best designers on the planet surround themselves with other creators, artists, musicians, photographers. They see films, visit galleries and museums, and love to explore clubs and restaurants in cities all over the world. To create for a modern woman means being in touch with the popular culture of your time. They draw inspiration from their muses, take pleasure in dressing friends, and notice every little thing about Every Woman.

4. They Achieve a Balance of Art and Commerce

Fashion is the perfect balance of art and commerce. The best designers are not deaf to the likes and dislikes of the retailers or consumers who buy their clothes. The best fashion company CEOs are not blind to the beauty and purpose of creativity and cutting-edge design. The best designer understands the basics of business-and staying in business. The best business person understands fashion and that playing things safe is not the way to stay in fashion.

5. They Have Stamina and Courage

After catastrophic failure, instead of hiding or changing professions, a great designer returns to the skills that made him or her great in the first place: the foundation skills of sketching and draping; fabric expertise; tailoring; patternmaking-the process of turning a design flat, like a paper pattern, into muslin or silk jersey so that it can be made into a garment. He exhibits the stamina and resolve of an elite athlete. This is the essential quality that separates those who ultimately make it from those who vanish into the faculty lunchroom at a junior college in the suburbs. But no one talks about it because it's so uns.e.xy. Plus, America loves a comeback. Moral makeover. Public rehabilitation. Look at Madonna and Michael Vick. You'll only be more successful for the footfalls.

The Ultimate Design Test:

How to Know If You Are a Designer

You see an ad in the back pages of Women's Wear Daily that says, "Top Dress Designer Wanted," e-mail in your resume, and receive a standardized response that you'll be hearing more within two weeks. After ten days, you're asked to show up for an interview on Seventh Avenue on a Wednesday at 11 a.m. You enter and meet a business guy with a legal pad. Within minutes you realize that this isn't really a talking interview and the interviewer doesn't want to hear about your summer in Paris interning at Balenciaga with Nicolas Ghesquiere. No. This is a tryout, a time to show what you know as well as give a sampling of your instincts, inclinations, energy, knowledge, and taste. Tougher than Project Runway because it's one shot and on the spot: No prep. No breaks. No retakes.

TRY-OUT.

Bud Konheim's Signature Designer Interview The dapper, preppy Bud Konheim was born into the dress business on both his mother's and father's sides of the family, attended an Ivy League school (Dartmouth), and tried his hand at many different professions, but ended up discovering what he loved the most was the closest thing to home. The process presented here is drawn from the approach Bud devised to hire Nicole Miller away from her then-company many years ago. At that time, he received 340 resumes, interviewed 170 applicants using this process, and identified three candidates who rose to the top before selecting Nicole.

OBJECTIVE.

"When I need a talented top designer, I think about the interview for three to four months. You can't decide talent from a resume. Design is not about talking."

PART 1. CHOOSE A FABRIC.

"I have a pile of fabrics on the table, among them six or seven good ones. I ask the candidates to pick out the fabric they'd like to use. It is a test of their touch, fabrication know-how, understanding of fibers, weights, seasons. Most don't make it past this step."

PART 2. SKETCH AND DRAPE.

"Next, I ask people to first sketch a dress and then drape the fabric to show the idea of the dress. I need to see what they'd do with the fabric. This is all about draping.

"I have a big pad. They sketch the dress on my pad. I then use the pad to grade the rest of the interview.

"Sure we can all name famous designers who don't know how to sketch, but you'll be much more believable if you can express your idea on paper. The language of a designer isn't words. Don't tell me-SHOW ME!!"

PART 3. UPDATE A BASIC AND/OR UPDATE A WINNER.

"All companies have one style that's a real winner at retail, and they face the challenge of taking that winner into the next season. The challenge is how to evolve it so it's new but keep alive what consumers love about it. How to take a winner into the next season is what I call the 'evolution' of a design.

"So I have a dress hanging on the wall. I ask the candidates that made it this far to tell me what they'd do to move it forward. There are no good designers who do not possess this ability. Where would you look to change it?"

GETTING HIGH MARKS.

"How was Nicole able to do so well? She had innate good taste, a French mother, and her RISD training. She was a groovy girl who went out to cool clubs and parties at night. She was in tune with contemporary culture and had lots of friends who were artists."

GET OFF YOUR JIGGLY b.u.t.t.

At some point in Nicole's interview, a patternmaker walked into the room with a question on a sample she was making of a dress that she was holding in her hand. Bud liked the fact that Nicole got up out of her chair to touch and examine the dress. That she got down on her knees to get the hem right (and still does!) showed that she understood what the job was and exactly what kind of energy she'd put into it.

Designing clothes is not a desk job. You must have mental and physical stamina and be mentally and physically fit. You are constantly moving. Given all that activity and the fact that the designer is often the image for a brand, it's not surprising that I can count on half of one hand the number of overweight designers I've ever met. Just an observation; not a judgment.

Designing Your Own Design Education

Unlike the careers of Ralph Lauren and Miuccia Prada, the words "No Formal Design Training" do not apply to many of today's most successful designers. Indeed, when you examine the paths followed by today's generation of successful designers, it is striking how similar they are.

TODAY'S TOP DESIGNERS & THEIR FASHION EDUCATION

Where to Go to Fashion School

You can see from Today's Top Designers & Their Fashion Education chart that of this sampling of fifty-three young designers, widely considered to be among the most important in the world today, two-thirds attended only three schools: one-third studied at the Parsons School of Design in New York City; some 20 percent at Central Saint Martins in London; and 10 percent at the Fashion Inst.i.tute of Technology in New York City. The only other schools to appear more than once are ESMOD (founded in 1841 in Paris), the oldest fashion school in the world, and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, which since the 1980s has been a hotbed of amazing creativity. When I've shared this chart with fashion insiders, they've all been stunned to see the impact on the world of fashion that such a small number of inst.i.tutions has had.