Top 10 Most Overlooked Designers
The fashion world may be overlooking these designers, but Joe Zee sure isn’t.
10. Jacques Marcel
Ok, he may be a fictional designer imagined in the world of I Love Lucy, but as a 10 year old I never forgot that episode of the Ricardo’s and the Mertz’s trip to Paris and Lucy’s unrelenting drive to a buy a French designer dress.
After seeing the fashion show of Jacques Marcel, I thought I knew what couture was all about. It was everything I dreamed fashion to be. In the end, Ricky tricked her and Lucy didn’t get her dress but instead got a hemp potato sack and a horse feedbag that she wore on her head like a hat but even then, it was the epitomy of chic.
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Author: Joe Zee, Creative Director of ELLE
9. Travis Banton
I think costume designers are often forgotten in the realm of true fashion designers which is a pity. Being such a consumer of movies and television shows, I have seen amazing costumes take hold in telling a story.
That could be said of someone like Travis Banton, who was the head costume designer of Paramount Pictures in the Thirties. He was credited with creating the “looks” of such actresses as Clara Bow and Mae West and Marlene Dietrich but his fame was set when Mary Pickford chose his dress to wear when she married Douglas Fairbanks (the silent movie version of Brangelina).
Travis would later also create the looks of the Ziegfeld Follies.
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Author: Joe Zee, Creative Director of ELLE
Photo Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images8. Vera Maxwell
I guess you can say Vera Maxwell was Halston before Halston. She was the first designer to tackle the idea of Ultrasuede; an idea that seemed completely inappropriate at the time since real designers didn’t dabble in such bad imitation fabrics but she did it to perfection. The rest is fashion history.
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Author: Joe Zee, Creative Director of ELLE
7. Bob Mackie
Bob is such an iconic American designer to me. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s designed for all my cliche gay icons: Liza, Barbra, Cher, Judy, Tina and of course, Ms. Ross but I think it was his unabashed flare for drama. Sheer panels at the Oscars! A feather mohawk! A dress made out of curtains! On paper it sounds hideous; in my memory, it was pure fashion. For all the designer revivals, this is the one I am waiting for.
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Author: Joe Zee, Creative Director of ELLE
Photo Credit: Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images6. Jacques Fath
There’s something about the classic clothes of Jacques Fath when he first started that reeked French fashion to me. It was European but easy to digest; it was fashion but not ridiculous. If you looked up the word chic, I am sure one of his early creations would be alongside that definition. Rita Hayworth thought so; she wore one of his dresses to marry Prince Aly Khan.
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Author: Joe Zee, Creative Director of ELLE5. Nolan Miller
Dynasty was one of my earliest fashion moments. Those hats; those shoulders; those suits; all that beading! When I discovered that the costume designer was someone named Nolan Miller, I automatically assumed he was a couture designer but it was until years later that I realized that his clothing line came AFTER the success of Dynasty. So ahead of his time! In my world of fashion, those campy clothes seemed oddly relevant again today.
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Author: Joe Zee, Creative Director of ELLE
Photo Credit: Luis Martinez/Getty Images4. Claire McCardell
She is also credited with being at the forefront of establishing what true American sportswear is. I have always had a fondness for these type of clothes: easy, casual, chic, effortless. I guess it’s a product of me growing up in Canada wanting to be American and loving fashion along the way.
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Author: Joe Zee, Creative Director of ELLE
Photo Credit: Nina Leen/Getty Images3. Kansai Yamamoto
When I was in highschool in the mid-80’s, all my sophisticated fashion friends were wearing Kansai Yamamoto. It was the height of the Japanese craze and while designers like Matsuda and Comme des Garcons had broader (more or less) appeal, it was Kansai’s cartoony, extreme clothes that I leaned towards. The clothes weren’t cheap but walking down the hallways of a Toronto suburban highschool with in an oversized red tshirt embroidered with a giant Japanese cartoon warrior on it was strangely satisfying.
Could you use more fashion advice from Joe Zee? Watch ALL ON THE LINE WITH JOE ZEE Fridays at 9:30p
Author: Joe Zee, Creative Director of ELLE
Photo Credit: Roger Jackson/Getty Images2. Koos Van Den Akker
The Dutch designer who has been a big inspiration to so many present designers including Nicholas Ghesquiere where a few seasons ago, the New York Times dissected something he had designed to be very similar to a Van Den Akker design. For the pop culturist like me, Van Den Akker was also known for doing Bill Cosby’s sweaters.
Could you use more fashion advice from Joe Zee? Watch ALL ON THE LINE WITH JOE ZEE Fridays at 9:30p
Author: Joe Zee, Creative Director of ELLE1. Bonnie Cashin
She is one of the original queens of American sportswear, known for her innovative use of incorporating hardware into clothing like she had done with Coach handbags when she launched their accessories collection.
Could you use more fashion advice from Joe Zee? Watch ALL ON THE LINE WITH JOE ZEE Fridays at 9:30p
Author: Joe Zee, Creative Director of ELLE
Photo Credit: Eliot Elisofon/Getty Images
