Designer Profile
The fitting room at ZUZWA's Paris atelier smells faintly of steam and wool
The fitting room at ZUZWA's Paris atelier smells faintly of steam and wool. On the dress form, a coat in charcoal melton sits halfpinned, its sleeves still unset. Founder Zuzanna Wasilewska circles it twice, tugs the shoulder seam forward a...
## Three Women Who Made Versace Visible
Three Women Who Made Versace Visible Gianni Versace once said, in a 1991 interview with Women's Wear Daily, that he designed for women who "know how to walk into a room." He did not say "enter." The verb mattered. These were women who und...
## The Red Room
The Red Room Valentino Garavani once said that a woman should wear a dress, not the other way around. He spent fifty years proving the point in atelier fittings where the garment moved and the client stood still, watching silk organdie se...
The fitting room at Tom Ford's Milan atelier, spring 2004
The fitting room at Tom Ford's Milan atelier, spring 2004. A model stands on a raised platform in a white jersey gown that clings and releases in all the correct places. Ford circles once, pins a seam at the hip, steps back. "Lower," he say...
The fitting room at 5 Avenue Marceau, sometime in 1965
The fitting room at 5 Avenue Marceau, sometime in 1965. Yves Saint Laurent kneels beside a model, pins between his lips, adjusting the hem of a dress that will not photograph well but will move beautifully. He does not design for the camera...
## The Fitting
The Fitting In the basement of Via Fogazzaro, sometime in late 1992, Miuccia Prada stood before a mirror with a model whose name has since been lost to the archive. The garment in question was a nylon backpack, though calling it that unde...
Virgil Abloh was adjusting a zip on a denim jacket backstage at the Palais de Tokyo when Naomi Campbell walked in
Virgil Abloh was adjusting a zip on a denim jacket backstage at the Palais de Tokyo when Naomi Campbell walked in. The jacket was covered in quotation marks and belonged to no one yet. Campbell picked it up, turned it over, and asked if she...
## The Fitting
The Fitting A wool miniskirt, barely there. A cardigan worn backwards, buttons trailing down the spine. Chloë Sevigny stands in a Milan showroom in 1995, twenty years old and already famous for doing nothing in particular — or rather, for...
## The Women Who Made Margiela
The Women Who Made Margiela The first time Carine Roitfeld wore a white Tabi boot to a fashion week, she paired it with a men's blazer and bare legs. This was 1991. The boot was split at the toe, modelled on a fifteenthcentury Japanese so...
The fitting room on the third floor of 2 rue du Pont-Neuf is not large
The fitting room on the third floor of 2 rue du PontNeuf is not large. In 1997, when Marc Jacobs first walked into it — jetlagged, uncertain, the first American to helm a French leathergoods house — he found bolts of toile stacked against o...
## The Three Women Who Made Loewe Mean Something
The Three Women Who Made Loewe Mean Something Jonathan Anderson stands in the Loewe atelier on Calle de Serrano, holding a piece of nappa so soft it folds like silk. He is explaining something about volume to a pattern cutter. The leather...
## The Fitting
The Fitting Simon Porte Jacquemus stands in the back room of his Paris atelier, adjusting the shoulder of a linen dress on a woman who is not a model. She is his mother's age, roughly, though his mother died when he was nineteen. The dres...
The fitting room at 24 Faubourg Saint-Honoré smells of saddle soap and iris
The fitting room at 24 Faubourg SaintHonoré smells of saddle soap and iris. A silk scarf lies pinned to a mannequin, its pattern halfresolved. The woman adjusting the drape is not designing for herself. She is designing for a customer she w...
The fitting room at Via Monte Napoleone, spring 1995
The fitting room at Via Monte Napoleone, spring 1995. A model stands motionless in a biascut slip dress, cut so low the small of her back is visible. Tom Ford adjusts the strap, steps back, and nods. Across the room, three Polaroids are tac...
Hubert de Givenchy met Audrey Hepburn in 1953, expecting Katharine
Hubert de Givenchy met Audrey Hepburn in 1953, expecting Katharine. The actress arrived at his avenue George V atelier wearing ballet flats and a gondolier's shirt. She was twentyfour. He was twentysix. She needed a wardrobe for Sabrina, an...
A fitting room on Via della Fontanella di Borghese, sometime in the mid-Eighties
A fitting room on Via della Fontanella di Borghese, sometime in the midEighties. Carla Fendi adjusts a sable collar, steps back, narrows her eyes. The woman in the mirror — not a model, a client, someone whose name appears in certain addres...
## The Fitting Room
The Fitting Room Domenico Dolce stands in the atelier on Via Goldoni, one hand pinning a black lace bodice at the waist, the other gesturing toward the mirror. The model turns. He shakes his head. The dress comes off. This is how it works...
The first fitting took place in February 1947, in a salon still smelling of fresh paint
The first fitting took place in February 1947, in a salon still smelling of fresh paint. Christian Dior circled a mannequin named MarieThérèse, pinning a bar jacket so tightly at the waist that she could barely breathe. He stepped back. "C'...
Gabrielle Chanel kept a screen in her apartment above 31 rue Cambon
Gabrielle Chanel kept a screen in her apartment above 31 rue Cambon. Behind it, she watched each show through the mirror, standing where no one could see her. She dressed women who moved — who drove, who worked, who refused corsets — but sh...
The fitting room at 16 rue Vivienne, early 1990s
The fitting room at 16 rue Vivienne, early 1990s. Michael Kors adjusts the sleeve of a camel coat on a model who stands with her weight shifted, one hip cocked, a cigarette burning in the ashtray behind her. The coat is meant to look uncons...
The photograph is black and white, taken somewhere in Kensington in 1966
The photograph is black and white, taken somewhere in Kensington in 1966. A young woman stands in a trench coat, one hand in the pocket, the collar turned up against nothing in particular. The coat is Burberry's, the woman is Jean Shrimpton...
## The Three Graces
The Three Graces Brunello Cucinelli stands in the piano nobile of his Solomeo headquarters, one hand resting on a woolandcashmere throw draped over a Biedermeier settee. He is describing, with characteristic volubility, the way light fall...
## The Women Who Made Bottega
The Women Who Made Bottega Lauren Hutton stood in a Milan showroom in 1980, holding a woven leather bag the size of a briefcase. She had flown in from New York at the request of Andy Warhol, who told her the Italians were doing something...
## The Women Who Made Balenciaga
The Women Who Made Balenciaga The fitting room on avenue George V was silent except for the rustle of gazar. Cristóbal Balenciaga, kneeling with a mouthful of pins, adjusted the sleeve of a coat that appeared to float several centimetres...
Lee Alexander McQueen once said he designed for women he wanted to meet, not women he already knew
Lee Alexander McQueen once said he designed for women he wanted to meet, not women he already knew. The distinction mattered. In the studio at Hoxton Square, before the LVMH money and the international acclaim, he built collections around f...
## Three Women Who Shaped Acne Studios
Three Women Who Shaped Acne Studios Jonny Johansson stands at a fitting table in Stockholm, adjusting the shoulder of a grey wool blazer on a model whose face you wouldn't recognise from a runway. She shifts her weight. He steps back. The...
## The Hands Behind the Coat
The Hands Behind the Coat Elżbieta Kowalska has been cutting sleeves for thirtytwo years. She learned the trade in Łódź, in a factory that made wool overcoats for the Soviet market, and she has worked at ZUZWA's Warsaw atelier since the m...
The fitting room on Via Gesù runs narrow and bright, three mirrors angled to catch every seam
The fitting room on Via Gesù runs narrow and bright, three mirrors angled to catch every seam. Donatella Versace stands to one side, arms crossed, while a woman in a linen apron circles a model wearing what will become, six weeks later, the...
The atelier sits on the fourth floor of Palazzo Mignanelli, two blocks from the Spanish Steps
The atelier sits on the fourth floor of Palazzo Mignanelli, two blocks from the Spanish Steps. At ten past nine on a Tuesday morning, Maria Grazia Chiuri is not here—she left for Dior in 2016—and neither is Pierpaolo Piccioli, who departed...
## The Hands That Built the Tuxedo Jacket
The Hands That Built the Tuxedo Jacket Tom Ford stood at the far end of a cutting table in his London atelier, one hand flat against a length of midnightblue woolmohair, the other gesturing toward a seam allowance that had, in his view, b...
## The Hands That Cut Le Smoking
The Hands That Cut Le Smoking Madame Françoise stands at a cutting table in Saint Laurent's Avenue Marceau atelier, her left hand flat against black grain de poudre, her right holding shears that predate most of the junior cutters in the...
## The Hands That Hold the Nylon
The Hands That Hold the Nylon In a windowless room on the third floor of Prada's Via Fogazzaro complex, Lucia Bianchi turns a panel of black nylon under the lamp. She is looking for a pucker — the faint gather that appears when tension sl...
The Hands Behind the Arrows
Luca Benini is crouched beside a cutting table in OffWhite's Milanese atelier, smoothing a length of cotton twill with the flat of his hand. The fabric is white. It will not stay that way. Benini has been with the house since 2016, back whe...
## The Hands That Fold the Pleats
The Hands That Fold the Pleats The atelier sits four floors above the Via Fogazzaro showroom, and if you arrive at the right hour — midmorning, when the light slants through the northfacing windows — you might catch Lucia Ferrero at her t...
## The Hands That Hold the Seam
The Hands That Hold the Seam Maison Margiela's atelier sits on the third floor of a building in Paris's 10th arrondissement, behind a door marked only with four white stitches. Inside, three pattern cutters stand at a table the size of a...
Louis Vuitton's artisans, named
The Capucines bag begins with a single piece of Taurillon leather, cut by Sandrine Lebrun on the third floor of the Asnières atelier, where the light from the Seine comes in slanted and grey. She has been with Louis Vuitton for twentytwo ye...
The Hands Behind Loewe's Puzzle Bag
The workshop sits on the fourth floor of Loewe's Madrid atelier, where the air smells faintly of vegetabletanned leather and machine oil. Luz Fernández holds a single piece of calfskin against the light, checking for scars. She has done thi...
The fitting room at Jacquemus's Marais atelier runs narrow — three metres wide, maybe four
The fitting room at Jacquemus's Marais atelier runs narrow — three metres wide, maybe four. Simon Porte Jacquemus stands at one end, arms crossed, watching a toile drape over a model's shoulder. At the other end, kneeling with a pincushion...
The workshop on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré runs quiet most mornings
The workshop on rue du Faubourg SaintHonoré runs quiet most mornings. No music, no chatter beyond what the work requires. Hervé Lemaire sits at a table near the window, a Kelly frame clamped in front of him, and stitches the gusset to the b...
Gucci's artisans, named
The Horsebit loafer leaves the atelier on Via delle Caldaie in a branded dust bag, tissuelined, with a card bearing the name of the person who made it. That last detail is new. For seventythree years, the shoe has been a house signature — b...
## The Hands That Shape the Bow
The Hands That Shape the Bow Isabelle Moreau stands at a cutting table on the third floor of 3 Avenue George V, pinning a length of doublefaced duchess satin to a paper pattern that looks, from ten feet away, like origami gone wrong. It i...
Fendi's artisans, named
The atelier sits on the third floor of Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, that travertine monument to Mussoliniera geometry that Fendi has occupied since 2015. Inside, Anna Fontana is bent over a Peekaboo frame, one hand steadying the turnlock...
## The Hands That Sew Sicily
The Hands That Sew Sicily Giuseppina Randazzo threads a needle in a thirdfloor workroom in Milan. She is sixtytwo. She has been with Dolce & Gabbana for twentynine years. The garment in front of her is a black lace dress, the kind that ap...
The atelier on Avenue Montaigne keeps its windows closed in summer
The atelier on Avenue Montaigne keeps its windows closed in summer. Air conditioning would disturb the drape of silk organza, or so the logic goes, and so the premier d'atelier works in what feels like a greenhouse with north light. On a Tu...
The Hands That Make Chanel
Madame Gripoix is bent over a workbench in the 9th arrondissement, pouring molten glass into a bronze mould no larger than a thumbnail. The mould itself is a century old. The glass, tinted with metallic salts, will cool into a cabochon that...
Celine's artisans, named
The workshop sits on the third floor of a limestone building in the 10th arrondissement, windows facing north to catch the steadiest light. Véronique Mallet has been at her bench for twentytwo years, and for the last eight, her hands have s...
## The Hands That Hold the Trench
The Hands That Hold the Trench The fitting room at Burberry's Castleford facility smells faintly of cotton gabardine and machine oil. On the table: a halffinished trench coat, sleeves pinned but not set, storm shield tacked in place with...
The fitting room in Solomeo smells of steam and wool
The fitting room in Solomeo smells of steam and wool. Brunello Cucinelli stands to one side, hands in trouser pockets, watching a woman named Patrizia Monacelli pin the shoulder of a doublebreasted jacket. She works without speaking. The fa...
## The Hands
The Hands The Cassette bag begins with Giancarlo Bianchi's thumbs. He has been working intrecciato for twentytwo years, first at a small leather goods workshop in Montebello Vicentino, then at Bottega Veneta's atelier in Vicenza since 200...
Balenciaga's artisans, named
The Hourglass bag leaves Balenciaga's Cépret atelier on Avenue George V every few weeks, one at a time, each stitched by Marie Durand. She has been doing this since 2019, when Demna introduced the silhouette — a curved, almost corseted trap...
## The Hands That Cut the Armour
The Hands That Cut the Armour Sarah Burton stands at the cutting table in Alexander McQueen's Clerkenwell studio, adjusting the fall of a tailcoat sleeve. The garment is black, naturally, and the shoulder line extends two inches past the...
The sample room on the third floor of Acne Studios's Stockholm headquarters smells faintly of steam and wool
The sample room on the third floor of Acne Studios's Stockholm headquarters smells faintly of steam and wool. It is early March, and Johanna Andersson is fitting a coat — the same coat, more or less, that she has been fitting for eleven yea...
The fitting room at ZUZWA's Antwerp atelier smells faintly of steam and wool
The fitting room at ZUZWA's Antwerp atelier smells faintly of steam and wool. Zuza Walczuk stands behind a model wearing a coat that looks like it was pulled from a 1940s wardrobe and then put through a pasta roller. The sleeves are too lon...
## The Fitting Room on Via Gesù
The Fitting Room on Via Gesù Gianni Versace once said he learned to cut before he learned to read. His mother, Francesca, ran a dressmaking atelier in Reggio Calabria, and the boy spent afternoons watching her pin muslins on local clients...
## The Red Room
The Red Room Valentino Garavani once said he didn't invent red. He simply made it his own. That was in 1962, when he opened his first atelier on Via Condotti in Rome. The shade—a bright, unapologetic vermillion that sat somewhere between...
## The Fitting That Wasn't
The Fitting That Wasn't Tom Ford once told Vogue that he learned more from watching a fitting go wrong than from any design class at Parsons. The year was 1992, his second season as womenswear designer at Gucci, and the model had just ste...
## The Last Fitting
The Last Fitting Yves Saint Laurent stood in front of a mirror at 5 avenue Marceau in January 1962, pinning a black wool crêpe jacket on a house model named Victoire. The shoulders sat square. The waist nipped without distortion. He had s...
## The Leather Goods Shop That Learned to Think
The Leather Goods Shop That Learned to Think Miuccia Prada stands at the end of a runway in Milan, September 1988, as models file past in black nylon backpacks. The audience is confused. This is not what one wears to the opera. This is no...
## A Studio in Milan, 2013
A Studio in Milan, 2013 Virgil Abloh sat at a desk covered in photocopies. Helvetica in various weights. Quotation marks scaled to the size of dinner plates. A single Nike swoosh, repeated, offset, annotated. The room was not large. The t...
## The Smaller Room
The Smaller Room Miuccia Prada stood in the back of the Miu Miu showroom in Milan, spring 1993, watching buyers finger the hems of short skirts in nylon and silk. The collection had arrived six months earlier — a handful of pieces shown a...