Interesting article that I thought I'd share.
Originally posted by NYT.com
The Young and Not So Reckless
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By GINIA BELLAFANTE
<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Unless one has been accused of murdering a well-to-do intimate on Mykonos or in certain stretches of western Connecticut, the arrival of Vanity Fair generally does not set off feelings of apprehension. But when the July issue, with the cover line, "It's Totally Raining Teens!" turned up on the sixth floor of 120 Walker Street in Chinatown last week, the occupants were struck with an immediate sense of queasiness.
The loft is the home and workplace of Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough, the designers behind Proenza Schouler, a year-old label that has received no end of lavish attention — last week, a Perry Ellis award for new talent from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Already though, the designers, both 24, who graduated just 13 months ago from the Parsons School of Design, are wondering if so much attention is indeed too much.
The cover of Vanity Fair shows nine teenage stars, among them Ashley Olsen of the Olsen twins, who is wearing a silver sequin top from Proenza Schouler, a circumstance that does not sit well with the garment's creators. Like most Americans older than 13, Mr. Hernandez and Mr. McCollough are not entirely sure who the Olsen twins are or why they are famous, but the two young men understand that the sisters are less than ideal messengers for their ethos of aloof urbanity.
"We don't want to be thought of as `oh, the designers who dress the Olsen twins!' " Mr. McCollough said as he plopped the magazine down on a table in the team's studio.
That the Olsen incident should qualify as a misfortune is a testament to just how remarkable a ride the team has had in recent months. Their first run of good luck came when Julie Gilhart, the fashion director of Barneys New York, agreed to see the collection they produced for their senior thesis and subsequently bought it for the store. Vogue editors are so infatuated that they mention the design team in nearly every issue. The partners' first professional fashion show, held during the fall 2003 collections in New York in February, was paid for by sponsors like Redken. And the locale — the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park — was secured by Anna Wintour.
Mr. Hernandez and Mr. McCollough were never, it seems, going to participate in fashion in a way that was not entirely grown-up, a sensibility that is reflected in the cut and mood of the clothes. Their style avoids any concessions to girlishness or irony, the themes on which so many designers of their generation lifelessly rely. The palette is neutral, the waistlines are high, and breasts are acutely articulated. More than anything, though, the clothes have a vague sense of sexual optimism, a feature typically absent in the work of serious designers who prefer to dress women up as unfeeling aggressors or poetic victims of emotional self-ravaging.
Proenza Schouler's spring 2003 collection, their first as a business team, was picked up by Jeffrey, Linda Dresner and Ikram in Chicago, stores where the clothes have sold from decently to very well. They are priced from $300 for a sweater, about $500 for pants and $1,500 for certain dresses. "We literally bought the entire collection from them," said Ikram Goldman, owner of the boutique that bears her name, "and we literally have nothing left."
At Mix in Houston, where 75 percent of the Proenza Schouler spring line has sold, "clients were endeared to the designers' stories," Evelyn Gorman, the store's owner, explained. "Two young guys just coming out of school and making it."
Some of the designers' classmates at Parsons, though, take issue with the idea that Mr. Hernandez and Mr. McCollough have ascended by virtue of supreme talent and serendipity. Their senior show, which won them the school's designer of the year award and ultimately caught the attention of Ms. Gilhart, was produced, some argue, with an unfair advantage. "We cheated," Mr. Hernandez said, "and had the clothes sewn professionally." School rules require students to make their own clothes. Also, Michael Kors, for whom Mr. Hernandez worked as an intern while in school (Mr. McCollough worked for Marc Jacobs), donated much of the fabric for the collection.
"Other students did come to me and complain that certain kids were having their clothes made," Tim Gunn, chairman of the fashion department at Parsons, said. "I said I would only hear these kinds of complaints from faculty members, and faculty members did not come to complain."
In Ms. Gilhart's estimation, the designers have been successful in part because their clothes are well made and they deliver them to stores on schedule. There is little that is ad hoc about their operation. Thanks to the fact that a friend of theirs, a former New York University student named Shirley Cook, befriended a German venture capitalist during a ski trip in Austria, they are sufficiently financed. Mr. McCollough also seeks the occasional bit of advice from his father, Huston, 52, a retired investment banker, formerly of Merrill Lynch, who now lives in the English countryside.
But Mr. Hernandez and Mr. McCollough realize that their chemistry of talent and good fortune are no insurance against the rapidly migrating appetites of the fashion elite. "Culturally, we've benefited from a moment where people have turned against the bling-bling and giant global brands," Mr. Hernandez said. "People want to buy from small, young designers."
What's difficult, though, Mr. McCollough added, "is that the fashion world is always looking for what's new, which has been helpful to us because we are new. But we really have to watch ourselves because people get so sick of things so quickly.
"If you're not the new kids anymore, what are you?"
good article 
these guys 
but i understand designers need publicity to sell clothes and make $ 
there are so many hardworking kids at parsons too 
i know i would be pissed if i did everything myself and others cheated. but parsons like their hype machine to make the school look good.
their style is very american 
