1. Coco Chanel
Born Gabrielle “Coco” Bonheur Chanel, she is a
excellent French fashion designer, founder of the well known Chanel brand,
whose modernist thought, practical design, and pursuit of expensive simplicity
made her an important and influential figure in 20th-century fashion. She was
the only fashion designer to be named
on Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century.
2. Donna Karan
Donna Karan came from a background that was related to
fashion in certain ways. This fashion designer worked as a head of a design
team for a few number of years and launched some designs that included the very
well-known ‘Seven Easy Pieces’.
She is the sole creator of the DKNY label
(Donna Karen New York).
Since then, this label has seen many new additions in
the fashion segment.
3. Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani, an outstanding Italian fashion
designer, particularly noted for his menswear for his clean, tailored lines.
He
formed his company, Armani, in 1975, and by 2001 was acclaimed as the most
successful designer to come out of Italy, with an annual turnover of $1.6
billion and a personal fortune of $7 billion as of 2012.
Armani is also the first
ever designer to ban models who has a Body Mass Index under 18. He is truly a
living legend and a great fashion designer.
4. Calvin Klein
Born in 1942 in New York, Klein also capitalized on
his own charisma and lean good looks. Throughout the decades, rumors about his
own sexual orientation seemed to fuel the ongoing mystique and appeal of this
designer.
5. Donatella Versace
She is the sister of Gianni Versace, and she has proven to be no
lesser sibling.
After the murder of Gianni in 1997, Donatella took over and has
taken the Versace name to new heights.
She made sure that Versace shops would
cater to the different fashion centers around the world, particularly Milan and
New York.
Top celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Madonna have endorsed the
company’s collection of clothes, accessories, fragrances and home furnishings.
6. Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren is worth
$7.5 billion, and he got it all because of his fashion sense.
In 1970, the
first Polo logo was seen in Lauren’s line of women’s suits that was designed in
the classic men’s style.
Two years later, the famous short sleeve shirt with
the Polo emblem appeared, and it soon became a classic. These shirts have been
collected by men all over the world ever since. Lauren, on the other hand, has
been collecting rare and classic cars.
The collection is so unique that it has been
featured in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
7. Christian Dior
Born in January of 1905,
this French designer was best known for his distinctive “New Look” silhouette.
First shown in 1947; his suits and dresses revolutionized the way women dressed
after the Second World War.
Today, talented designer John Galliano carries on
the legendary designer’s legacy in Paris, where he creates dramatic couture
ball gowns, chic prêt-a-porter, and luxurious accessories for Dior. Galliano’s
talent and his over-the-top runway shows have ensured that the brand remains
strong and viable in today’s world.
8. Tom Ford
Tom Ford, counted among
the most famous designers today, whose portfolio includes serving as a creative
director for both Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci, wanted to be actor when he was
growing up.
He was born in Texas and even took training to be an actor. But
fate had other “designs” for him. Tom ford popularity as a designer reached
peaks when in the year 2000, he was declared the winner of the Best
International Designer Award.
9. Pierre Cardin
The Italian-born
Frenchman is lauded for his 20th century pieces that looked as though they were
from the 25th century.
As Cardin rose to fame in the age of the space race, his
creations took on an air of futurism. His so-called bubble dresses had all the
fixings of science fiction, combining earthly elegance with out-of-this-world
colors and avant garde design.
10. Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent
became popular in fashion circles due to his creativity in redesigning the
clothes considered to be masculine into beautiful, feminine wardrobe for women.
Perhaps, one of the most famous fashion designers in France, Yves was the first
one to introduce power dressing for women in the form of “power suits” in the
year 1966. He is also credited with designing the men’s smoking jacket.
The
most important fashion legacy which he has left behind is the “ready-to-wear”
fashion clothing.
11. Christian Louboutin
Christian Louboutin, the master fashion designer of shoes. The
renowned shoe designer has already achieved a reference place in the world of
design that surpasses all of his opponents. His 20th anniversary was the pretext to
emphasize his merit and talent: he has unveiled a capsule collection which
gathers 20 styles of shoes and six bags, inspired by his work over the past 20
years.
12. Karl Lagarfeld
Chloe, Fendi, and Chanel
have all notably been touched by the hands and soul of the notorious Karl Lagarfeld.
Most people recognize
him for his talent as a fashion designer, but what they don’t know is that he
has a passion for photography.
By combining his fascination for the fashion
icons, Mona Bismarck and Millicent Rogers, and his passion for photography he
created his latest masterpiece, The Old New Glamour.
13. Roberto Cavalli
Roberto Cavalli (born
15 November 1940) is an Italian fashion designer. He is known for exotic prints
and for creating the sand-blasted look for jeans.
14. Marc Jacobs
With a number of
prestigious awards under his belt from the Parsons School of Design, Jacobs moved onto working
for Perry Ellis, but was let go from the label after infamously designing
a “grunge” collection.
15. Betsey Johnson
Betsey Johnson (born
August 10, 1942) is an American fashion
designer best known for her
feminine and whimsical designs.
Many of her designs are considered "over
the top" and embellished. She also is known for doing a cartwheel at the end of her fashion shows.
16. Sandy Powell
Sandy Powell (born
7 April 1960) is a British costume designer.
She has won the Academy Award for Costume Design for Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Aviator (2004), and The Young Victoria (2009).
She has also received nine BAFTA Award nominations, winning for Velvet Goldmine and The
Young Victoria.
She won
numerous other awards in costume
design for the latter film. She is frequently associated with Martin Scorsese, having designed the
costumes for six of his films.
17. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana is an entry level fashion house founded in 1985 in Legnano by Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana.
The two met in Milan in 1980 and designed for the same fashion house.
In
1982 they established a designer consulting studio; in time it grew to become
"Dolce & Gabbana".
They presented their first women's collection
in 1985 in Milan, where a year later their store would open its
doors.
18. Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen, (17 March 1969 – 11 February
2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier.
He is known for having worked as
chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001 and for founding his
own Alexander McQueen label.
His achievements in fashion earned him
four British Designer of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2001 and 2003), as
well as the CFDA's International
Designer of the Year award in 2003. McQueen committed suicide in 2010 at the age of forty.
19. Valentino Garavani
Within a range of 45
years of career in the world of fashion, he decides to create a collection of
dresses in the different shades of the color red, which he names “ Rojo
Valentino”. Designed in a fan of shades of fire red to the simple red, that
only an artist like him has been able to create in a collection of dresses of
different tonalities and textures, which became a total rage.
This is how he
celebrated his 45 years of work and glory in the world of modeling.
20. Miuccia Prada
Miuccia Prada, in full Miuccia Bianchi Prada,
original name Maria Bianchi (born May 10,
1949, Milan, Italy).
Italian fashion designer best known as the
head designer at the Prada fashion house.
She is renowned for utilizing
minimalist designs to achieve a traditional style with modern influence.
21. Tommy Hilfiger
Thomas Jacob "Tommy" Hilfiger (born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and
founder of the lifestyle brand Tommy Hilfiger Corporation.
Tommy Hilfiger developed a line of clothes
that has become incredibly popular among the masses.
22. Carolina Herrera
Carolina Herrera (born January 8, 1939) is a Venezuelan-American fashion designer known for "exceptional personal
style", and for dressing First
Ladies from Jacqueline Onassis to Michelle
Obama.
The New York Times cited her designs as "elegant and
worldly without ever being fussy".
When asked to described the aesthetic of her
very first collection, in 1981, Carolina Herrera replied, “It’s my
own style”.
23. Jean-Paul Gaultier
Dubbed fashion’s enfant
terrible, Jean Paul Gaultier launched his first prêt-à-porter collection
in 1976 and founded his own couture house in 1997.
Emerging as a designer in
the 1970s, he developed his own dress codes that reflected the changing world
around him.
24. Herve Leger
Hervé Léger was founded
in 1985 by the designer Hervé Peugnet.
The same year Karl Lagerfeld advised Peugnet that his surname
Peugnet would be too difficult for Americans, the target market, to pronounce,
and instead suggested the surname Léger.
Having
lost the rights to the Hervé Léger name Peugnet later took a third
"brand" name as Hervé L. Leroux.
25. Stella McCartney
Stella Nina McCartney,(born 13 September 1971) is an English fashion designer.
She is the daughter
of former Beatles member Sir Paul McCartney and American musician, photographer
and animal rights activist Linda McCartney.
Confidence, sexy femininity and precise
tailoring encompassed McCartney’s first runway collection and soon became her
signature style.
26. Ralph Rucci
Ralph Rucci (born 1957) is an American fashion designer and artist.
He is known in particular for Chado Ralph Rucci, a luxury
clothing and accessories line.
Rucci's
clothing designs have appeared in a number of major exhibitions, and he has won
some significant fashion-industry awards.
He is the subject of a recent
documentary, and he and his clothing have received positive critical response
in the fashion press.
Ralph Rucci’s work extends beyond trends, and he is the quintessential American couturier.
27. Salvatori Ferragamo
Salvatore Ferragamo was born in 1898 in Bonito, near Avellino, the eleventh of 14 children.
After making his first pair of shoes at age nine, for his sisters to wear at
their confirmation, young Salvatore decided that he had found his calling.
Current and archive collection galleries,
stockists, ad campaigns, and information about the Ferragamo shoe
museum in Florence.
28. Jimmy Choo
Dato' Jimmy Choo, Jimmy Choo Yeang Keat (born 15 November 1948) is a Malaysian fashion designer based in the United Kingdom.
He is best known for co-founding Jimmy Choo Ltd that became known for its handmade
women's shoes.
Jimmy Choo is an iconic luxury lifestyle
designer defined by an empowered sense of glamour and a confident sense of
style.
29. Alexandre Herchovitch
Alexandre Herchcovitch born in 21 July 1971 is a Brazilian fashion designer.
He is of Jewish descent, and his grandparents immigrated to Brazil
from Poland and Romania.
Brazilian Fashion designer Alexandre Herchovitch has all the guts of crossing the limits of
innovation, unlike some Fashion designers.
30. Mossimo Giannulli
Mossimo is a mid-range American clothing company, founded in 1986 by
designer Mossimo Giannulli, and currently owned by Iconix Brand Group.
Mossimo
specializes in youth and teenage clothing such as shirts, jeans, jackets, socks,
underwear and accessories.
It draws from street, urban and sport styles.
31. John Varvatos
John Varvatos is a
well-known Greek American contemporary menswear designer with a wide portfolio
in fashion design field.
32. Daphne Guiness
The Honourable Daphne Diana Joan Susanna Guinness (born 9 November 1967) is an artist of
both British and Irish nationality.
She is an heir by direct
descent of Arthur Guinness, the
18th-century inventor of the beer that still bears his name.
She is an heiress, socialite, muse and mother
and has been a fashion stylist, film producer, designer and perfumer.
33. Jonathan Jony Ive
Sir Jonathan Paul Ive, (born
27 February 1967) is a British
designer and the Chief Design
Officer (CDO) of Apple Inc.
He oversees the Apple Industrial
Design Group and also provides leadership and direction for Human Interface
software teams across the company.
Ive is the designer of many of Apple's
products, including the MacBook Pro, iMac, MacBook Air, Mac mini, iPod, iPod
Touch, iPhone, iPad, iPad Mini, Apple Watch and iOS.
Steve Jobs considered Ive to be his
"spiritual partner at Apple", while Fortune magazine stated in 2010 that Apple
design motifs Ive's designs have "set the course not just for Apple but
for design more broadly".
He also serves as the narrator for most of
Apple's product reveal videos. Actor Giles
Matthey portrayed him in the 2013
film, Jobs.
34. Kate Spade
Kate Spade (Katherine Noel
Brosnahan; born December 24, 1962) is the co-founder and namesake of the designer brand, Kate Spade New York.
Kate Spade New York is known over the world for their bold
and stylish designer clothing, designer shoes, women fashion accessories and
more.35. Christian Audigier
Christian
Audigier was born in France and has an estimated net worth of $250 million
dollars.
An astonishing fashion designer and businessman.
36. Allegra Versace
Allegra Versace was born
in Italy and has an estimated net worth of $800 million dollars. The niece of
legendary designer Gianni Versace, Allegra Versace received 50% of the
Versace design empire after her uncle’s murder in 1997.
37. Diane Von Furstenberg
Diane von Fürstenberg began designing women’s clothing in
1970 and three years later introduced her iconic knit jersey wrap dress, for
which she is most widely known today.
38. Michael Kors
Michael Kors is widely known as one of the most
proeminent american designers in luxury sportswear and acessories.
39. Tory Burch
Tory Burch is focused on
beauty & fragrances, womens shoes, handbags & accessories.
40. Phoebe Philo
Phoebe Philo (born
in Paris in 1973) is a British fashion designer and the Creative Director of
Céline.
Philo is also known for her work at Chloé.
41. Oscar de la Renta
Born in 1932 and trained
by the famous Cristobal Balenciaga and Antonio Castillo, Oscar de la Renta (or Oscar Aristides
de la Renta Fiallo) first gained international acclaim after he become one of
the couturiers to dress First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the 1960’s.
42. Zac Posen
As a high school
sophomore, Posen interned with Nicole Miller, at 18 was accepted to London’s
prestigious Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, and debuted his
first runway show by 21.
43. Riccardo Tischi
Relatively new in the
fashion world, Italian-born Riccardo Tischi is already making quite the impact.
Having graduated from London’s Central Saint Martins Academy in 1999, he was
soon picked up as Creative Director for Givenchy womenswear and haute couture.
44. Vera Wang
Vera Ellen Wang is
an American fashion designer based in New York City and former figure skater.
45. Isabel Marant
The French fashion designer’s
brand of effortless chic is practically a uniform for off-duty models and movie
stars in the know.
46. Esteban Cortázar
Esteban Cortazar is
a Paris-based designer whose career includes his eponymous line CORTAZAR, a
tenure as chief creative director at Emanuel Ungaro and much more.
47. Vivienne Westwood
A living legend in the
fashion industry, she was the driving force behind the wave punk / rock and
grunge in the ’70s.
48. Paul Smith
Paul Smith is
Britain’s foremost designer. He is renowned for his creative spirit.
49. Jil Sander
Heidemarie Jiline
‘Jil’ Sander (born 27 November 1943) is a minimalist German fashion
designer and the founder of the Jil Sander fashion house.
50. Anna Sui
Anna Sui (born
August 4, 1964) is an American fashion designer. Sui is one of the most
celebrated names in fashion history, known for her timeless designs.
