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Fashion designer Emanuel Ungaro - The designer who dared to be different

Emanuel Ungaro (1933-2019): The Adventurous Fashion Designer

Emanuel Ungaro Background: Emanuel Ungaro was a child of Italian political refugees, who settled in Provence. Ungaro’s first toy was a Siemens sewing machine. His tailor father, Cosimo, encouraged and taught him to sew at a very young age, and when he was a teenager, Emanuel Ungaro started working alongside his father at the family …

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Fashion designer Franco Moschino

Franco Moschino (1950-1994): The Fashion Radical

Franco Moschino Background: Moschino was born near Milan, in a rural town called Abbiategrasso. His family owned an iron foundry that his father hoped he would work. However, Moschino was interested in fine art and aspired to be a painter. In 1968, he ran away from home to Milan where he enrolled at the Marangoni …

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Fashion designer Valentino

Valentino Garavani (1932-): The Last Emperor of Fashion

Valentino Garavani  Background: Born near Milan, in the north of Italy, Valentino became interested in fashion when he watched movie stars Rita Hayworth and Gene Tierney at his local cinema. On leaving high school, he was adamant he wanted to pursue fashion design education, and he left for Paris to study at the prestigious Ecole …

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Fashion designer Paul Smith

Paul Smith (1946-): Fashion’s Everyman

Paul Smith  Paul Smith in the office surrounded by books, magazines and samples. Photo source: Nick Ballon Background: Born in Nottingham, Paul Smith’s early ambition was to become a professional cyclist. He left school at the age of 15 and started to work at a clothing warehouse while practising cycling as a hobby. Following a …

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Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld (1933-2019): The Icon of Fashion

Karl Lagerfeld  Background: Lagerfeld was born on 10 September 1933 in Hamburg, to Elisabeth and businessman Otto Lagerfeld. His father owned a company that produced and imported evaporated milk, while his maternal grandfather, Karl Bahlmann, was a local politician. When Lagerfeld’s mother met his father, she was a lingerie saleswoman from Berlin. His parents married …

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Fashion designer Halston

Halston (1932-1990): Changing the Face of American Fashion

Halston Halston and all his muses photographed for Vogue in 1972. Photo source: Duane Michals Background: Roy Halston Frowick was born on April 23, 1932, in Des Moines, Iowa to an account father, and a stay-at-home mother. He developed an early interest in sewing from his grandmother and he began creating hats and altering clothes …

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Fashion designer Oscar de la Renta

Oscar de la Renta (1932-2014): A Renaissance Man of American Fashion

Oscar de la Renta A key figure of the New York fashion scene, the designer built an internationally recognised brand through charm and grace and was thought of as one of the great gentlemen of fashion. Over the course of his career, his designs proved exceptionally popular with American presidential ladies, including Nancy Regan, Hilary …

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Fashion designer André Courrèges

André Courrèges (1923-2016): The Designer of Space Age Fashion

André Courrèges Where do his tennis dresses, his sailor dresses come from? Where did he find them? On the steps of Delphi. In the wardrobe of Electra. They are modern and they are antique.’ Violette Leduc ‘Is Courrèges Wearable? Vogue, 1965 Background: André Courrèges was born to a butler father and a homemaker mother. He …

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Fashion designer Mary Quant

Mary Quant (1930-): Fashion Pioneer of the Swinging Sixties

Mary Quant Mary Quant, considered to be a true pioneer in fashion, was at the vanguard of the ‘Swinging London’ scene, designing clothes that perfectly embodied the freedom and energy of the time. Famous for putting the mini-skirt on the fashion map, her influence is so much broader than this iconic piece of clothing; she …

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Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008): The Moderniser of Fashion

Yves Saint Laurent Known for his shyness and timidity, Yves Saint Laurent rose to become a moderniser of fashion and created the most desirable collections reflecting the changing era – from the stiffness of haute couture to the freedom of ready-to-wear. He would suddenly meet fame at the age of 21 when he took over …

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