Proenza Schouler

The Label
This modern luxury label offers an edgy, youthful take on upscale dressing. The design team of Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough—self-proclaimed “dorks”—has only been in business since 2002, but they’ve already enjoyed numerous hit collections, and a rep as one of fashion’s most talked about labels. The duo met in design school, worked with Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs respectively, then partnered on their graduation project; the rest is history. It helps that their talent matches their hype, and that their collections showcase their skillful detailing. Some of the line’s most current pieces, sleek and minimal silhouettes with a soulful cheekiness, are redolent of the mod-ness of Courrèges, (a black-and-white cashmere mini-dress), or Paco Rabanne (a chain mail tank.)

The Look
Young and sporty, with a somewhat mod nod to cheeky sixties pop fashion icons. Tailored coats in lush menswear pattern prints, thin pencil skirts, color-blocked chiffon evening gowns cinched with satin belts, and sleek minimal silhouettes that mostly come in dark neutrals like bronze, battleship gray and military green.

The Designer
Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough met in 1999, while in design school at Parsons. They partnered up for their thesis project, calling it by their mothers’ maiden names, Proenza Schouler, and a collection was born. Hernandez, who hails from Cuban Miami, originally pondered becoming a doctor, while McCollough, from suburban New Jersey, was intent on blowing glass. Luckily, they found each other: The design duo were presented with the CFDA’s Perry Ellis Award for new talent in 2003 and have shown to critical acclaim with each subsequent season.
Defining Looks

Proenza Schouler Website

Jill Stuart

The Label
Jill Stuart is a vintage fiend—she owns a staggering number of old bags, chic and cheap—and it comes through in her women’s collection, launched in 1993. The New York native has a knack for tapping into the latest trend—be it girlie, Goth, prim, or minimal—and tweaking it to suit her vision of pretty, hip girls. One can always depend on her for flirty day dresses, skintight pants, and silk slips in virginal cream and white. Stuart rarely deviates from her favorites and injects every season with a few of her staples: lace trims and florals.

The Look
Dresses on the pretty side of sexy, designed for the eternally young and hip.

The Designer
Her parents owned Mister Pants, a well-known ladies boutique in the sixties, and introduced Stuart to fashion at a young age. As a teenager, she designed jewelry and handbags and sold her first collection of accessories to Bloomingdale’s at the tender age of 15. In the early eighties, she launched a popular signature line of accessories which would eventually pave the way into womenswear.

http://www.jillstuart.com/

Luella Bartley

The Label
Since launching in 1999, London-based Luella Bartley has been delivering effortless street-chic season after season. Her eternal muse is the rebel Brit “It” girl who can’t help but be adorable in her pink button-down shirts tucked into skintight jeans or layered under Bartley’s favorite striped sweaters. Bartley mixes themes with élan: punk motorcycle jackets with gingham skirts; little black dresses with pearls for polka dots; preppy navy, red, and white. Add to this Bartley’s always in-demand accessories lineup of cool leather bags and shoes.

The Look
Squeaky-clean badasses and pretty punks.

The Designer
The Central Saint Martins grad and onetime British Vogue editor still lives in London— with fashion-photographer boyfriend David Sims and their two children—even though she’s been showing in New York since 2001. In a flip-flop setup, Bartley’s first few shows featured friends like Sadie Frost walking the runway while model pal Kate Moss watched from the front row. In January 2006, Bartley was selected to launch Target’s Go International line.

funky webbie

Vivienne Westwood

Dame Vivienne Westwood (born Vivienne Isabel Swire in Tintwistle, Cheshire, on 8 April 1941) is an English fashion designer largely responsible for modern punk and new wave fashions.

The punk style began to gain notoriety when the Sex Pistols wore clothes from Westwood and McLaren's shop at their first gig. The "punk style" included BDSM fashion, bondage gear, safety pins (taking inspiration from Richard Hell, a personality in the early New York punk rock scene), razor blades, bicycle or lavatory chains on clothing and spiked dog collars that were used as jewellery, as well as outrageous make-up and hair.
The inclusion of more traditional elements of British design, such as tartan fabric, amongst the more unusual elements of her style only served to make the overall effect of her designs more shocking.
Together, Westwood and McLaren revolutionised fashion, and the impact is still felt today.
Westwood's first runway show was the Pirate collection in London, in March 1981. Her design style had evolved so that her main interests included not only the youth and street culture but also tradition and technique.
Westwood worked historical factors into her collection by using historical 17th-18th century original cutting principles and modernising them. This collection was about 'gold and treasure, adventure and exploration'. Other influences in Westwood's work have included ethnic Peruvian influence, feminine figure, velvet and knitwear. A historical influence has always shown in her work.
In December 2003, she and the Wedgwood pottery company launched a series of tea sets featuring her designs.
Her first major retrospective of her work was shown in 2004-2005 at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the National Gallery of Australia. The exhibition is made up of around 145 complete outfits, grouped into the themes which have dominated her work from the early 1970s to the present day and were drawn from her own personal archive and the V&A's extensive collection. They range from early Punk garments to glamorous 'historical' evening gowns. The retrospective is touring the world and is set to continue until 2008.
Her Autumn/Winter 2005/06 Propaganda Collection drew inspiration from her archive, reinterpreting designs using Wolford’s exclusive knitting technology, who she has worked in close collaboration with since 2003.
Westwood accepted a DBE in the 2006 New Year's Honours List "for services to fashion", and has thrice earned the award for British Designer of the Year.
In May 2006, Westwood wrote a poem and provided personal photographs eulogising Swallows Wood, a Nature Reserve near Tintwistle where she was born and grew up. The Reserve is threatened with destruction by the construction of the Longdendale Bypass.

http://www.viviennewestwood.com