Forgotten/Obscure Fashion Designers That Disappeared…

[Caffeine]

Was it from his H.Chalayan secondary line by any chance? He had a dress there that sounds very much like what you were describing. We sold a lot from this style, really a good casual summer dress with a flattering cut!

I had thought that it was the main line, but it certainly could be the secondary line. I no longer have it so there is no way to check...it's like 20 years ago...
regardless, this customer agree with you

 

[nunova]

I heard he was among the people interviewed for the Jil Sander job that then went to Raf Simons. Now, unlike Vionnet, I think he would have been great fit for Jil Sander!

It would be wonderful if it happened, but I don't think he'd even would be considered at time when Raf landed the job (Prada Group was losing money in mid 00s) given his history of causing financial problems and Chalayan was laid off from TSE as label raked up lot of debt because of him. I don't remember which article I read while ago talked about it, but it mentioned exact figure I believe. It was from 2001, I need to find it.

I add Clements & Ribeiro (I remember when they tried to relaunch Cacharel in the late 90s)...

Oh yes, I mentioned them early on in the thread! I prefer their 90s work under their own name though compared to what they did later. Fun enough for London but it was wearable. They had similar financial issues like Chalayan at time, until they got to design a line for Dorothy Perkins and additional money did help. They survived long enough to make it into 00s and landed at Cacharel , saving the label briefly from being hell of licensed products, as Cacharel didn't have any runway shows since late 70s. I don't like as much of it except the very early collections they did, the very first S/S2001 is my favorite and this exact look that lives in my head rent free for past few years, even though it's on the simpler side of the whole collection:

I don't even think early campaigns under them were scanned/posted here? There was some buzz about them around that time, after initial wave of popularity died down after mid 90s. i-D ran a feature with new designers at bigger labels/houses (March 2001, wish I did a scan of it before) and they were here (alongside Giambattista Valli at Ungaro, even if he was around at label since 1998 and few others, but forgot who) and Surface (the American knockoff of Wallpaper, which became more fashion oriented after 2000) had a quite good article about that and might scan it in the future, with everything that is fashion related and wasn't torn out from copy I own...

Pearce Fionda

Now that's a deep cut. Thought about mentioning them at first though! But didn't. Their earliest work from 90s is hard to find on net, I couldn't really find pics of their shows back then. They mostly struggled due to primarily doing eveningwear, but I once I read they did try to expand into daywear? They got a deal with Debenhams back in 90s that saved them from bankruptcy.

Didn’t Xuly Bet came back a few seasons ago with the help of Lucien Pages? I didn’t get track of what he was doing after but I was thinking he was fully active now.

It's good to hear he's back. This actually surprised me but I'm not sure if I did hear about his come back before and I just forgot.

I feel he was quite forgotten for long time and I never really saw anyone talking about him more than just namedrops and random scans "archive" tumblr spaces had floating around tbh. I remember that his work also was quite popular in London during 90s, though I can't confirm anymore as I lost my cache of scans of i-D from 1991-1994 but I'm 100% sure he was getting part in regular fashion features of designers/labels at time and his pieces were iirc also featured in editorials.
(It was honestly one of most interesting years for i-D as magazine by the way, with it being exclusively about emerging new designers and smaller local names who got so much of support from them, early years of Edward as fashion director, the time right before Melanie left for US Baazar.)

I found a 1992 article about Zoran, which explains in hindsight why he is hidden nowadays...the guy has an ego the size of Trump´s!!

Zoran Zeitgeist

Zoran is the imperious Yugoslav-born fashion designer whose starkly elegant clothes are making a strong comeback for the repentant nineties. But as BEN BRANTLEY notes, the domineering designer still takes pride in insulting his celebrity clients and is doing his best to alienate everyone who counts in the business.

Zoran Zeitgeist | Vanity Fair

It was interesting read! I can appreciate him being so constant in his vision and dedication to complete purity in design, despite how unhinged and controlling he is.

A few words on the topic of Hussein Chalayan. I admit my thoughts are not entirely without bias, as I have worked with his label both in retail and wholesale. That being said - I think I can give a decent feedback what the clothes he actually sells are looking like.

Hussein is one of the most innovative drapers and pattern drafters I have come across, often overshadowed by the theatrics of his shows. However, much like with his contemporary Junya Watanabe, his collections always provide sufficient commercial backbone of pieces that carry his unique handwriting with an ease of wearing.

Thank you for your insight, as someone who has actual experience with his designs in real life. The chartreuse top has such wonderful drape.

I feel Chalayan did really fall into what McQueen did too, with theatrics and showmanship of the shows closer to the millennium taking attention off the clothes. Majority of people only recall his Tyvek designs (envelope dress and jacket for Bjork), these pixel print dresses, few moments from the shows and it's all - which pretty much flatten his work. I feel the press he was getting at time from more mainstream/less high end or alternative magazines treated him as novelty did contribute to how misunderstood he was.

I think often about S/S1997 which feels quite underrated collection and I barely saw anyone referring to it while talking about his work - it's full of extremely well tailored separates, some with a twist and simple dresses, the bamboo print recurring in many pieces from it didn't age at all.

Other Margiela offspring from that era: Susan Cianciolo & Bernadette Corporation. Purple, Self Service, The Face, i-D & Camilla Nickerson supported them quite a bit - which led to Barney’s, Louis Boston, Maria Luisa, Joyce, etc to order. It was a fragile ecosystem.

I talked about it already in this post, but the ecosystem used to be way more solid before, until the magazines moved on to primarily feature major labels/houses rather more of small labels, which at some point got relegated to their fashion news sections (Eye/Directory in i-D, Fashion Hype in The Face, Dazed had occasional smaller editorial or feature and only Sleazenation kept featuring smaller labels for a longer while, as it was smaller) and stopped being used in editorials as much it was before, it started happening by late 90s but by 2000s it was in full swing. i-D used to have editorials styled using only pieces from new designers and smaller labels earlier on, by time Edward E made it into fashion magazine first things did change a lot.

I think now about YMC, which is such a huge enigma for me as there's nothing much about them on the net, about the early years before French Connection bought them and made them into another boring mass produced label. During 90s it was a label that I associate primarily with i-D, as they gave them the most support. It will stay forgotten though because of that I believe. It was one of these utility focused unisex labels very popular at time - Maharishi and Vexed got reevaluated in recent years. Tough also Mandarina Duck stuck around that time with their clothing line and had massive presence (due to being already established bag/luggage brand at time, so more money for development and marketing, but they recently got quite popular among the "archive" crowd last year) - by the way, I think it's success was the reason why Samsonite got Neil Barrett to design the Black Label line.

 

[psychopsist]

Adding Rifat Ozbek.

Yes! I was just looking at his Fall 1998 RTW a week or two ago.

Most of the other names I can think of have been said already.

 

[mikel]

Does anyone remember anything from Chalayan’s stint at Asprey during the early 2000s?

 

[brandon J pierre]

hamish morrow ! London he was talk of the town. 2000s

 

[jeanclaude]

I feel he was quite forgotten for long time and I never really saw anyone talking about him more than just namedrops and random scans "archive" tumblr spaces had floating around tbh. I remember that his work also was quite popular in London during 90s, though I can't confirm anymore as I lost my cache of scans of i-D from 1991-1994 but I'm 100% sure he was getting part in regular fashion features of designers/labels at time and his pieces were iirc also featured in editorials.
(It was honestly one of most interesting years for i-D as magazine by the way, with it being exclusively about emerging new designers and smaller local names who got so much of support from them, early years of Edward as fashion director, the time right before Melanie left for US Baazar.

Xuly Bët´s f/w 94 collection was portrayed in Robert Altman´s Prêt-à-Porter (but under the name of a fictitious designer, Cy Bianco, who was played by Forest Whitaker).

 

[jeanclaude]

Is Ralph Rucci done with RTW? I know he still does some shows.

He is only into made to measure collections for his private customers. A real pity...

 

[jeanclaude]

Adding two guys with a similar style: Jean-Charles de Castelbajac and Enrico Coveri.

And as a write this, Gai Mattiolo appeared in my mind for no reason at all...and Gattinoni and Ken Scott!

 

[brandon J pierre]

Xuly Bët´s f/w 94 collection was portrayed in Robert Altman´s Prêt-à-Porter (but under the name of a fictitious designer, Cy Bianco, who was played by Forest Whitaker).

Wow good catch 👏 I never knew that designers i was thought it was a mix of westwood and jean paul

 

[jeanclaude]

Wow good catch 👏 I never knew that designers i was thought it was a mix of westwood and jean paul

Thank you! Now I have remember about another good black (and underrated) designer: Stephen Burrows.

 

[brandon J pierre]

Thank you! Now I have remember about another good black (and underrated) designer: Stephen Burrows.

Oh yes. ! They used to call him the designers designer. He made lots of chiffon dresses back in the seventies, and he would use a surger for the hem work, which will curl up the bottom and women loved it great for dancing. I believe he was also the first to make a dress out of an apron.

 

[brandon J pierre]

Arkadius

 

[jeanclaude]

Oh yes. ! They used to call him the designers designer. He made lots of chiffon dresses back in the seventies, and he would use a surger for the hem work, which will curl up the bottom and women loved it great for dancing. I believe he was also the first to make a dress out of an apron.

And the sad thing is that he is still alive...but no one cares about him!!

 

[Kanzai]

Carol Christian Poell, I really want to see his face lol. But the darkwear era has long gone obviously!

 

[pictures]

A few words on the topic of Hussein Chalayan. I admit my thoughts are not entirely without bias, as I have worked with his label both in retail and wholesale. That being said - I think I can give a decent feedback what the clothes he actually sells are looking like.

Hussein is one of the most innovative drapers and pattern drafters I have come across, often overshadowed by the theatrics of his shows. However, much like with his contemporary Junya Watanabe, his collections always provide sufficient commercial backbone of pieces that carry his unique handwriting with an ease of wearing.

View attachment 1441415 View attachment 1441416 View attachment 1441417 View attachment 1441418 View attachment 1441419

I have trousers from one of his men’s collections 25 years ago that I still wear today. And a women’s knit piece. He always had practical garments in each collection.

 

[pictures]

It would be wonderful if it happened, but I don't think he'd even would be considered at time when Raf landed the job (Prada Group was losing money in mid 00s) given his history of causing financial problems and Chalayan was laid off from TSE as label raked up lot of debt because of him. I don't remember which article I read while ago talked about it, but it mentioned exact figure I believe. It was from 2001, I need to find it.

Oh yes, I mentioned them early on in the thread! I prefer their 90s work under their own name though compared to what they did later. Fun enough for London but it was wearable. They had similar financial issues like Chalayan at time, until they got to design a line for Dorothy Perkins and additional money did help. They survived long enough to make it into 00s and landed at Cacharel , saving the label briefly from being hell of licensed products, as Cacharel didn't have any runway shows since late 70s. I don't like as much of it except the very early collections they did, the very first S/S2001 is my favorite and this exact look that lives in my head rent free for past few years, even though it's on the simpler side of the whole collection:
View attachment 1441530
I don't even think early campaigns under them were scanned/posted here? There was some buzz about them around that time, after initial wave of popularity died down after mid 90s. i-D ran a feature with new designers at bigger labels/houses (March 2001, wish I did a scan of it before) and they were here (alongside Giambattista Valli at Ungaro, even if he was around at label since 1998 and few others, but forgot who) and Surface (the American knockoff of Wallpaper, which became more fashion oriented after 2000) had a quite good article about that and might scan it in the future, with everything that is fashion related and wasn't torn out from copy I own...

Now that's a deep cut. Thought about mentioning them at first though! But didn't. Their earliest work from 90s is hard to find on net, I couldn't really find pics of their shows back then. They mostly struggled due to primarily doing eveningwear, but I once I read they did try to expand into daywear? They got a deal with Debenhams back in 90s that saved them from bankruptcy.

It's good to hear he's back. This actually surprised me but I'm not sure if I did hear about his come back before and I just forgot.

I feel he was quite forgotten for long time and I never really saw anyone talking about him more than just namedrops and random scans "archive" tumblr spaces had floating around tbh. I remember that his work also was quite popular in London during 90s, though I can't confirm anymore as I lost my cache of scans of i-D from 1991-1994 but I'm 100% sure he was getting part in regular fashion features of designers/labels at time and his pieces were iirc also featured in editorials.
(It was honestly one of most interesting years for i-D as magazine by the way, with it being exclusively about emerging new designers and smaller local names who got so much of support from them, early years of Edward as fashion director, the time right before Melanie left for US Baazar.)

It was interesting read! I can appreciate him being so constant in his vision and dedication to complete purity in design, despite how unhinged and controlling he is.

Thank you for your insight, as someone who has actual experience with his designs in real life. The chartreuse top has such wonderful drape.

I feel Chalayan did really fall into what McQueen did too, with theatrics and showmanship of the shows closer to the millennium taking attention off the clothes. Majority of people only recall his Tyvek designs (envelope dress and jacket for Bjork), these pixel print dresses, few moments from the shows and it's all - which pretty much flatten his work. I feel the press he was getting at time from more mainstream/less high end or alternative magazines treated him as novelty did contribute to how misunderstood he was.

I think often about S/S1997 which feels quite underrated collection and I barely saw anyone referring to it while talking about his work - it's full of extremely well tailored separates, some with a twist and simple dresses, the bamboo print recurring in many pieces from it didn't age at all.

I talked about it already in this post, but the ecosystem used to be way more solid before, until the magazines moved on to primarily feature major labels/houses rather more of small labels, which at some point got relegated to their fashion news sections (Eye/Directory in i-D, Fashion Hype in The Face, Dazed had occasional smaller editorial or feature and only Sleazenation kept featuring smaller labels for a longer while, as it was smaller) and stopped being used in editorials as much it was before, it started happening by late 90s but by 2000s it was in full swing. i-D used to have editorials styled using only pieces from new designers and smaller labels earlier on, by time Edward E made it into fashion magazine first things did change a lot.

I think now about YMC, which is such a huge enigma for me as there's nothing much about them on the net, about the early years before French Connection bought them and made them into another boring mass produced label. During 90s it was a label that I associate primarily with i-D, as they gave them the most support. It will stay forgotten though because of that I believe. It was one of these utility focused unisex labels very popular at time - Maharishi and Vexed got reevaluated in recent years. Tough also Mandarina Duck stuck around that time with their clothing line and had massive presence (due to being already established bag/luggage brand at time, so more money for development and marketing, but they recently got quite popular among the "archive" crowd last year) - by the way, I think it's success was the reason why Samsonite got Neil Barrett to design the Black Label line.

Xuly Bet (Lamine Kouyate) did get considerable editorial coverage in the early-mid 90’s with European press. And a couple of times in US Harper’s Bazaar. It helped that he was repped by Michele Montagne at the time (Helmut Lang, Martine Sitbon, etc.) - he was often part of a package deal!

 

[pictures]

Patrick Kelly
Willi Smith
Stephen Sprouse
Kansai Yamamoto
Sybilla
Bodymap
Ann Sofie Back

 

[NanKempnersVendeuse]

I have been lurking and loving TFS for 18 years or more, but never registered or posted. But after 11 pages of no one posting the name that first came to my mind for this thread, I caved in and have joined the ranks as a TFS poster. 😂

LARS NILSSON

 

[Maayan]

Claude Montana


Jacques Fath


Ter et Bantine


Masaki Matsushima


Victor Alfaro

 

[brandon J pierre]

I have been lurking and loving TFS for 18 years or more, but never registered or posted. But after 11 pages of no one posting the name that first came to my mind for this thread, I caved in and have joined the ranks as a TFS poster. 😂

LARS NILSSON

Yes bill blass right?