40 and Fabulous: A CUT ABOVE
Whether uber-glamorous or avant-garde, they’ve created the styled of the times. To celebrate our 40th anniversary, we look back at some of the great designers who have graced our pages.
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Roy Halston Frowick was his name; slinky seventies fabulousness was his game. Here, he throws out a pitch to the Halstonettes, his loyal team of runway models.
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At the time of this photo, the hooligan of high fashion had just been appointed head designer at Givenchy, where he fully indulged his rebellious streak until 2001.
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During the week, he still designs spectacular gowns. But come the weekend, de la Renta channels his inner country gentleman.
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She was the woman who pioneered the concept of chic, easy dressing— here, putting it to the test.
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“My idea of beauty is women who are comfortable with themselves,” she said, sans makeup, before Craig McDean’s lens.
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“He was a diva: extremely talented and extremely difficult,” W founder John B. Fairchild said of the designer, with whom he had a legendary decades-long feud.
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It was a big year for the then scraggly designer, who was just tapped to head up Louis Vuitton.
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Occasionally, the doyenne of uptown dressing likes to get down.
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“Who the hell is Sonia Rykiel?” sang Malcolm McLaren in 1994. Answer: a flame-haired icon with a penchant for playful knits.
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Klein had just expanded from designing only coats to minimalist sportswear—a style that would soon earn him the nickname Mr. Clean.
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He catapulted to fame as the King of Shoulder Pads. With the return of high-octane eighties dressing, he could be due for a comeback.
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“Fashion is just one of the ingredients I’m interested in,” said the designer-turned-artist on the heels of his first major solo exhibition of sculptures.
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Initially, Ghesquière’s position at Balenciaga was so tenuous that he also designed two Italian collections—Trussardi, then Callaghan—until 2001, when he was unanimously hailed as fashion’s new messiah.
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The Japanese icon, looking every bit like the high priest of dark fashion that he is.
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A champion of subversive style, the British designer, pictured on the right, in the bondage wear she made big.
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By the early nineties, the French designer— who had introduced us to man-skirts and put Madonna in a cone bra—was already fully ensconced as fashion’s enfant terrible.
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Rarely does he give interviews or make personal appearances, but before the camera, the great couturier can still be a cutup.
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The Moroccan-born Elbaz had just been brought on to design YSL’s ready-to-wear line. “For me, this isn’t a career move but the realization of a life’s dream,” he said at the time.
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The Kaiser, supersizin’ it.
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When it came to decadent rock-star style and in- your-face sexiness, Gianni Versace—seen here with his almost unrecognizable sis—wrote the book.
21
What goes up must come down. Long before he was booted from Dior, Galliano was a bad-boy designer on the rise.
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She defined the nineties with her sharp, elegantly tailored aesthetic—and is now rightfully back at the helm of her own label.
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Her unconventional approach to beauty, glamour, and femininity has made her into one of fashion’s most influential designers.
24
Today he owns a prestigious collection of rare automobiles, but years ago, Lauren got around on a good old 10-speed.
