bored with the old? check out the new rising designer names, according to wwd of today
The latest crop of designers — inspired by places ranging from New York's Wall Street to the boulevards of Paris — are making good starts with new collections that favor polish over flash.
Bruno Grizzo
"I didn't want to just make clothes," says Bruno Grizzo, 32, of his first collection for fall. "I wanted a concept that was focused, but had some room to play for the coming seasons." Although the notion of a conceptual collection from a new designer might seem cringe-inducing, Grizzo's clothes are far from it. Instead, the result is a tight lineup of eight dresses, each based on one essential of a woman's wardrobe: the shirt, sweater, T-shirt, denim jacket, suit jacket, coat, evening dress and lingerie.
When Grizzo was 17, he left his hometown of Londrina, Brazil, for a student exchange program in Columbus, Ohio, where he stayed for six years, attending Columbus College of Art & Design along the way. He then spent a year and a half in Paris, working for José Levy. In 1999, he moved to New York. Grizzo says it was on his first job there — with made-to-order designer Frank Tignino — that he received an invaluable education on how to make clothes and deal with private clients. "It was an amazing experience," Grizzo recalls. "I learned all those old couture techniques: draping, pattern making." The designer now works out of Tignino's spacious Garment District atelier, where he continues to make his own patterns — his favorite part of the process, he says.
The seeming simplicity of Grizzo's dresses belies their fastidious details. Even his T-shirt dresses have hand-sewn hems and grosgrain ribbon set into their collars, while a skillful just-right cut prevents the Italian jersey from clinging in the wrong places. His minimal lingerie dress is constructed with corseting techniques. The belt in the back of Grizzo's denim dress, however, is inspired by the adjustable cinch featured on Levi's earliest jeans, worn by California miners and gold-rushers. For now, the Bruno Grizzo fall collection, which wholesales from $350 to $590, will be available at the West Village boutique Albertine. But, of course, the designer hopes for more. "We can still take orders," he says with the optimism of a new face on Seventh Avenue.
— Meenal Mistry
Erica Davies
"I seem to function best when I have my head in two collections," says Erica Davies, who designs the contemporary line Development as well as her own collection, which she launched for fall. But perhaps it's because Davies, 34, is simply accustomed to the hectic pace of a double life, having held overlapping positions with Richard Tyler, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Max Mara and BCBG Max Azria during her 14-year fashion career.
Davies, a graduate of London's Central St. Martins, designs all the prints for the chic, well-edited line of silk dresses and tunics that bears her name. "I'm not a flashy person," she says. Thus, her simple and delicately geometric patterns mostly come in muted tones. Even a floral print reminiscent of Celia Birtwell's designs for Ossie Clark comes in dusty lilac and smoky grays and blues. In fact, Davies claims a love of all forms of Sixties design, evident in the Empire waists and floaty, belled sleeves of the cool, slightly bohemian silhouettes.
Her collection, however, isn't the designer's first on her own. Her inital solo venture, a contemporary line called Davies, sold moderately well, but only lasted three seasons, ending in 2004. "I was trying to find a niche in the contemporary market," she says. "But I didn't have the manpower and, in the end, it just wasn't me." This time around, she upped the ante to a designer price point; the line wholesales between $220 and $650. Kirna Zabête and Scoop in New York, United Arrows in Tokyo and Septieme Etage in Geneva have all placed orders. And though she is backing the line herself, the executives at Development are allowing the designer to use their infrastructure to work on both lines. But perhaps not for long, as plans for a secondary line based on her high-end dresses are in the works.
— M.M.
