The World Famous Designers

Paco Rabanne. “Don’t seduce, shock!” was the motto of fashion designer Paco Rabanne. He radically broke with the past which Dior had so successfully revived. For Rabanne the future meant brand-new materials.

He found his niche when he began designing plastic jewelry. His next step led to independence: in February 1966 Rabanne showed 12 “unwearable dresses” made of plastic disks and in September he presented his first garments made of aluminum with leather and ostrich feather trimming.

In the 1960s his futuristic metal dresses became to show business celebrities what white satin dresses had been to the Hollywood sirens of the 1930s.

Every modern girl wore Paco Rabanne’s chainmail, which was stitched not with thread and needle but with hooks, rivets and pliers.

Paco Rabanne has never gave up his experiments with unusual materials.

Pierre Cardin. Following Dior’s triumphant success with the “New Look” which overnight reestablished Paris as the fashion capital of the world, the city was gripped by gold fever. In 1951 Pierre Cardin showed his first collection. Since he had little starting capital, the collection was restricted to 50 coats and suits. His designs were an overwhelming success precisely because Cardin had avoided any imitation of the two most influential fashion geniuses of the period, Dior and Balenciaga.

Cardin, a marketing genius, is known as the fashion designer with the greatest number of licenses worldwide. Yet he is also one of the most innovative couturiers. In1958 he designed the first unisex collection, which united men and women in a joint lifestyle statement.

He had the audacity to be the first couturier to produce a ready-made collection. As a result he was expelled by the strict “Chambre Syndicale”. But even the latter soon had to accept that nothing would stop the American ready-to-wear concept from invading the motherland of fashion. It was swiftly named prêt-à-porter, thus allowing couturiers to choose whether they wished to use this avenue to make money – and allowing Cardin to return.

Karl Lagerfeld. The conclusions which Karl Lagerfeld drew in the 1960s from the signs of the times were quite different from those drawn by Courrèges, Cardin and others. While Lagerfeld's contemporaries saw the future in the space-age look, he put his money on the replacement of couture by ready-to-wear. And, instead of devoting himself to his own couture house, he worked as a freelance designer.

He first found fame at “Chloé” where he started to work in 1963, remaining there for 20 years.

In 1965 he began to design fur collections for the Fendi sisters in Rome and today he іs responsible for all their collections. However his greatest coup has been the revitalization оf the legendary Chanel style.

Emanuel Ungaro. Emanuel Ungaro began his career as an independent couturier. His early collections featured severe combinations of blazer and shorts.

He soon developed his own style which was based on a bold mix of colours and patterns. Flowers on checks or stripes with large polka dots in bright colours are typical of Ungaro, who never succumbed to the pessimistic tendencies which took hold of some other designers.

Ungaro does not sketch his designs but works directly with the fabric on the body of a model – for up to 12 hours a day, always with the inspiration of classical music.

The Italian Ferragamo group took over the running of his business in 1996, while keeping Ungaro as the undisputed creative head of the organization. In 1999 he showed a modernized version of hippie fashion: long, frilly, floral skirts with cropped tops in matte mauve and beaded, chiffon pants worn with feather-light jackets or fur-trimmed stoles.

Дата добавления: 2015-09-05