Phoebe Philo (Paris, 1973-) is an English fashion designer.

Phoebe Philo is a former fashion designer of the fashion house Chloe. Philo began working for Chloe in 1997 as Stella McCartney's design assistant. Philo succeeded McCartney as creative director of the iconic luxury label in 2001 after McCartney was offered the chance to start her own label with the Gucci Group. Philo resigned from her role at Chloe on January 5, 2006. Her reasons for leaving included a desire to spend more time with her family.

Philo graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 1996, a year after Stella McCartney. When McCartney landed the job at Chloe, she decided to bring Philo along as an assistant. Philo claims that she learned a lot about design from McCartney and many say that Philo added a "street sensibility" to McCartney's designs.Like McCartney, Philo is a vegetarian and will not work with fur, but whereas McCartney (a strict vegetarian) will not work with leather either, Philo will.

Philo has, at times, been credited with making Chloe cool again, as it had been in the 1960's and 1970's under the rule of fashion-zeitgeist, Karl Lagerfeld. Some of the It items produced by Chloe under Phoebe Philo include high-waisted jeans and babydoll dresses, wooden wedge shoes (something of a phenomenon at the time) and stack heeled buckled boots, horn, bat and fossil butterfly necklaces and of course, the Bracelet, Camera, Silverado, Paddington (arguably the most popular It Bag of all time), Betty and Edith handbags, which adorned the arm of every celebrity and celebrity-wannabe.

Cynthia Rowley (born 29 July 1958) is an American fashion designer.

A native of Barrington, Illinois (an affluent northwestern suburb of Chicago), she is one of three children born to Ed Rowley, a former science teacher, and his wife, Clementine. She graduated from Barrington High School in Barrington, Illinois (1976) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1981).

Known for what The New York Times has called "flirty, vibrantly colored dresses and tops in wispy materials" that have "a whiff of the carefree, simple spirit" of Claire McCardell, Rowley launched her business in 1981or 1983with $3,000 in seed money from one of her grandmothers. "Several months later, she held a fashion show in her apartment, inviting every important fashion editor in New York, as well as Andy Warhol and a smattering of movie stars none of whom she knew."

Since then the Cynthia Rowley Collection, incorporated in 1988,has grown to include women's wear, shoes, handbags, eyewear, belts, dishes, legwear, hats, color cosmetics, and fragrance. It is sold in Cynthia Rowley shops in New York, Chicago, East Hampton, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and in the Cynthia Rowley online boutique. Shops in Beijing and Shanghai are opening soon.The collection is also represented in better department and specialty stores both domestically and internationally.

The Council of Fashion Designers of America honored Rowley with a Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent (1994) and a nomination for the Perry Ellis Award for New Menswear Design Talent.

The designer and Ilene Rosenzweig, her best friend and a former reporter for The New York Times, also created a line of home accessories called Swell, which made its debut at Target in 2003.

Russell Simmons (born October 4, 1957 in Queens, New York), is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist.

In 2007 USA Today named Russell Simmons one of the "Top 25 Most Influential People of the Past 25 Years,"calling him a "hip-hop pioneer" for his groundbreaking vision that has influenced music, fashion, finance, television and film, as well as the face of modern philanthropy.

Simmons has been instrumental in bringing the powerful influence of hip-hop culture to every facet of business and media since its inception in the late 1970s and has been listed as the most influential mogul in hip hop. From producing and/or managing such early hip-hop artists as Kurtis Blow, Run-DMC( Run is Russell's brother), Whodini and the Beastie Boys to signing contemporary superstars like Jay-Z and Ludacris, Simmons groundbreaking vision was crystallized with partner Rick Rubin in the creation of the seminal Def Jam Recordings in 1984, launching the cultural revolution known as hip-hop.

In addition to launching Def Jam, Simmons helped bring hip-hop culture to the mainstream with such ground breaking ventures as Phat Farm clothing and HBO's Def Comedy Jam and Def Poetry Jam. Simmons has continued to serve the hip-hop generation through such ventures as the Rush Card, Simmons Lathan Media, Atman Fragrance, Simmons Jewelery and the Global Grind website.

A committed philanthropist, Simmons heads Rush Philanthropic, which exposes disadvantaged youth to the arts, as well as serving as the Chairman of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which is dedicated to bringing religions and ethnicities together.

Donna Karan is the fashion designer and the creator of the DKNY (Donna Karan New York) clothing label. She was born Donna Ivy Faske on October 2, 1948 in Forest Hills, New York. She grew up in Hewlett, Long Island with her stepfather who was a tailor and her mother who was a model. She graduated from Hewlett High School in 1966 and then went on to Parsons The New School for Design for two years. She left to work for Anne Klein. Eventually she became head of the Anne Klein design-team and remained in this position until 1989. At that time, she launched the Essentials line, and her legendary Seven Easy Pieces. She married Mark Karan in the early 1970s.

The European DKNY business was damaged in the early 1990s by poor quality and flawed logistics which resulted in the creation of a European supply center in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The company later announced to show their collection at the Milan fashion week in 1996 but later backed out again.

Karan is the founder of many charities including, most recently, the Urban Zen initiative. On March 14 and 15 2008, Karan organized a huge sale of her personal belongings and vintage company samples at her late husband's studio to benefit the cause.

Derek Lam is a fashion designer from San Francisco, California and is of Chinese parentage. Lam is the youngest of three children in his fourth-generation family. His parents had a business that imported clothes from Asia, and his grandparents ran a successful garment factory in San Francisco that specialized in bridal and wedding dresses. As a child he would sit with the seamstresses, "adoring the wedding gowns."

Lam graduated from Parsons School of Design in 1990. Lam started out as an assistant for Michael Kors in the 90s and worked there for four years. Lam then moved to Hong Kong to work for a large retail brand. Following his Hong Kong experience, Derek returned to New York and was appointed vice President of Design with the Kors line.

In 2003, he launched his own label. He debuted at the New York Fashion Week in September 2003, for the Spring/Summer 2004 collections. In 2005, Lam won the CFDA Perry Ellis Swarovski Award for new designers and started his own line of clothes. In addition to clothes, Derek Lam also has a line of shoes and jewelry.

Lam is known for his pretty, girly fabrics backed by clean, crisp silhouettes. Signature pieces include raw silk sheath dresses with plunging necklines, wide-leg trousers in various wools and dainty cashmere pea coats cinched with stiff silk belts.

Lam now works with Tod's to create ready-to-wear. Tod's also holds the license to produce his bags and shoes.

Beth Levine (December 31, 1914 - September 20, 2006) was an American fashion designer most known for her designs from the 1940s through the 1970s. Under the label of her husband Herbert Levine she was the best-known American women's shoe designer from the 1950s to the early 1970s, and is still referred to as "The first Lady of American Shoes Design".

She was born as Elizabeth Katz in Patchogue, New York, the third of five children of Anna and Israel Katz, Lithuanian Jewish emigrants who operated a dairy farm. In the 1930s, she moved to Manhattan and found work as a shoe model, then worked her way up from a stylist to head designer for I. Miller. She served as a Red Cross volunteer during World War II.

She met Herbert Levine when she applied for a job designing shoes for another shoe manufacturer in 1944 and married him three months later. He was head of the firm, and this gave her designs the chance to come to center stage. They founded a new company under the name Herbert Levine in 1948. Beth Levine described their vision for the company by saying, "We wanted to create a shoemaking niche. We were making very pretty shoes that nobody needed, but everybody wanted".

Although the company was named after publicity-savvy former-journalist Herbert, Beth Levine's name was still featured as the primary shoe designer for their products. She was given the Coty Award in 1967 for design innovation.

The Levines greatest influence is considered to be the re-introduction of boots to women's fashion in the 1960s and the popularization of the shoe style known as mules. When Nancy Sinatra wore Levine boots in publicity shots for the 1960s hit song These Boots Are Made for Walkin demand for fashion boots leaped so much that Saks Fifth Avenue opened a special section its shoe department called Beth's Bootery.

Beth had recognized how much women admired the delicacy and femininity of high fashion shoes when she modeled them on her tiny (size 4B, European size 35) foot. She set out to create designs that would make women with average shoe sizes look more delicate and feminine in their shoes, and in the process changed the silhouettes of American fashion. She experimented with cutting away more and more of the leather to expose more and more of the foot, in the process creating shoes that were regarded as both sexier and more elegant than her predecessors.

In addition to three First Ladies, Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson and Pat Nixon, the clientele also included movies stars such as Bette Davis and musicians like Barbra Streisand. Beth Levine worked to ensure that the wives of former presidential rivals John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon never ran into each other at her studio, and once frantically had to rearrange their fitting schedules when she discovered their visits would overlap.

Derek Lam is a fashion designer from San Francisco, California and is of Chinese parentage. Lam is the youngest of three children in his fourth-generation family. His parents had a business that imported clothes from Asia, and his grandparents ran a successful garment factory in San Francisco that specialized in bridal and wedding dresses. As a child he would sit with the seamstresses, "adoring the wedding gowns."

Lam graduated from Parsons School of Design in 1990. Lam started out as an assistant for Michael Kors in the 90s and worked there for four years. Lam then moved to Hong Kong to work for a large retail brand. Following his Hong Kong experience, Derek returned to New York and was appointed vice President of Design with the Kors line.

In 2003, he launched his own label. He debuted at the New York Fashion Week in September 2003, for the Spring/Summer 2004 collections. In 2005, Lam won the CFDA Perry Ellis Swarovski Award for new designers and started his own line of clothes. In addition to clothes, Derek Lam also has a line of shoes and jewelry.

Lam is known for his pretty, girly fabrics backed by clean, crisp silhouettes. Signature pieces include raw silk sheath dresses with plunging necklines, wide-leg trousers in various wools and dainty cashmere pea coats cinched with stiff silk belts.

Lam now works with Tod's to create ready-to-wear. Tod's also holds the license to produce his bags and shoes.

Goth style's rejection of mainstream values, emphasis on freedom of expression, and challenging taboos makes it difficult to define its aesthetic principles. Goth fashion emphasizes transformation of the body, elements of beauty, order, conscious eroticism and 'otherness' that flouts conventions.

While a member of the Goth subculture may or may not embrace nihilism, many are drawn to the fashion or music due to a sense of alienation, which may explain the style's fascination with morbidity or vampire style. Wearing black eyeshadow and shroud-like clothing that refers to the dead or undead, may express grief, despair, mourning or deathwish. However, this is not necessarily an anti-life attitude. Rather, Goth fashion can be a positive transformation from alienation through self-expression via beauty and fashion, and through a sense of belonging to a community that shares the same sense of alienation. Alternately, the choice to embrace this fashion may simply rise from a far less complicated psychology, and reflect an attraction to Eros through Thanatos, an attraction to the 'darker' side of sexuality. The wearer may find the extremity, intensity or 'otherness' of the dark Goth look or preoccupations to be sexy or empowering.

One famous female role model is Theda Bara, the 1910s 'Vamp' femme fatale known for her dark eyeshadow, curves and smoldering on-screen presence.

Like the Urban Primitive movement, goth subculture rejects mainstream conventions and encourages reinventing oneself by transformation or physical modification. That one may take total control of one's image is a powerful individual response to a society dominated by Photoshop images that prescribe a rarely attainable ideal of a faked 'natural' beauty. Goth fashion is a calculated "unnatural" response to the unattainable "natural" California Girls golden Barbie (or Ken) image.

Kenzo Takada (born 27 February 1939 in Himeji, Japan) is a Japanese fashion designer. He is also the founder of Kenzo, a world-wide brand of perfumes, skincare products and clothes.

Kenzo's love for fashion developed at an early age, particularly through reading his sisters magazines. He shortly attended the University of Kobe, where he felt bored and eventually withdrew, against the will of his family . In 1958, he joined a fashion school, Tokyo's Bunka Fashion College, which had then just opened its doors to male students.

After earning his diploma, he settled in Paris in 1964, not without adaptation problems. He was trying to gain a place in the fashion environment; attending shows, making contacts with the media and selling sketches.

Kenzo's first designs started because he could only afford to buy his fabrics from flea sales. most of these fabrics were scraps, the remains of grandmothers sewing baskets. As a result, Kenzo had to mix many bold fabrics together to make one garment.

Kenzo's success started in 1970: during this year he presented his first show at the Vivienne Gallery; his first store, "Jungle Jap" was opened; and one of his models appeared in the cover of ELLE. His collection was presented in New York and Tokyo in 1971. The next year, he won the Fashion Editor Club of Japan's prize. Kenzo proved his sense of dramatic appearance when, in 1978 and 1979, he held his shows in a circus tent, finishing with horsewomen performers wearing transparent uniforms and he himself riding an elephant.

His first men's collection was launched in 1983. In 1988, his women's perfume line began with Kenzo de Kenzo, Parfum d'ete, Le monde est beau and L'eau de Kenzo. Kenzo pour Homme was his first men's perfume (1991).

Since 1993 the brand Kenzo is owned by the French luxury goods company LVMH.

Kenzo Takada announced his retirement in 1999, leaving his assistants in charge of his fashion house. In 2005, he reappeared as a decoration designer presenting "Gokan Kobo" ("workshop of the five senses"), a brand of tableware, home objects and furniture.

A jumper dress (or jumper in American English; pinafore dress, pinafore, or pinny in British English) is a sleeveless, collarless dress intended to be worn over a blouse, shirt or sweater.

In British English, the term jumper describes a sweater. Also, in more formal British usage, a distinction is made between a pinafore dress and a pinafore, which, though a related garment, has an open back and is worn as an apron. Pinny is a shorter name for both garments.

A sundress, like a jumper, is sleeveless and collarless. However it isn't worn over a blouse or sweater, and is of a distinctly different cut and fashion.

The distinction between a jumper dress and an apron dress is unclear; in some cases, both terms are correct. If the design of the dress is directly inspired by an apron (having a bib in front, for example), the garment is often described as an apron dress.

Elie Saab (born July 4, 1964), sometimes known simply as 'ES', is a Lebanese fashion designer.
In 1982, Saab launched his own Beirut-based fashion label when he was just 18 years old. His main workshop is in Lebanon, a country to which he remains deeply attached. He also has workshops in Milan and Paris.

Saab is self-trained. He started sewing as a child and knew that one day he would make a living out of it. In 1981 he moved to Paris to study fashion, but ended up returning and opening his workshop in 1982. In 1997 Saab was the first non-Italian designer to become a member of the Italian Camera Nazionale della Moda, and in 1997, showed his first collection outside Lebanon in Rome. In 1998, he started ready-to-wear in Milan, and in the same year, he held a fashion show in Monaco which was attended by Princess Stéphanie of Monaco. He became an overnight success after he became the first Lebanese designer to dress an Oscar winner, Halle Berry, in 2002. Berry wore a burgundy gown by Saab to the 2002 Academy Awards when she won for Best Actress. Berry later wore another dress by Saab, this time a gold dress, to the 2003 Oscars.

In May 2003, the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture invited him to become a member, and he showed his first haute couture collection in Paris in July 2003. His first ready-to-wear collection in Paris was the Spring-Summer 2006 collection, and Paris is now his permanent ready-to-wear runway.

His creations can be found all over the world, with boutiques located in Beirut and Paris.

Manish Arora is an Indian fashion designer based in New Delhi whose collections have been shown in London Fashion Week and in India.

In 1997 Manish Arora launched his Label "Manish Arora" and started retailing in India. Three years later in 2000, Manish represented India at the Hong Kong Fashion Week and participated at the first ever India Fashion Week held in New Delhi. The following year Manish launched his second Label "Fish Fry" and showed this collection in six leading cities in India and was stocked at Lord & Taylor, New York.

During 2002 Manish opened his first flagship store Manish Arora Fish Fry in New Delhi and in 2003 opened his second flagship store in the commercial capital of India, Mumbai. He had a successful showing at India Fashion Week in Mumbai and started stocking at Maria Luisa Paris starting a successful export business.

During 2004 he was awarded the Best Women's Pret Designer at the first ever Indian Fashion Awards 2004 held in Bombay and MC2 Diffusion Paris started representing the Label for the export business. The following year Manish participated in the Miami Fashion Week in May 2005 where he was presented with the designer's choice for Best Collection Award.

He had a successful debut at the London Fashion Week in September 2005 and received an overwhelming response from the press as well as the buyers. Manish Arora also collaborated with Reebok to design a collection of shoes under the brand Fish Fry for Reebok.

He opened his flagship store in December 2005 at Lodhi Colony Market in New Delhi. Manish exhibited some of his work at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London for an exhibition called "Global Local" in association with the British Council, India.

In 2006 he confirmed himself to be a fashion designer of great potential during his second showing in February receiving rave reviews from coveted fashion journalists like Hilary Alexander, Suzy Menkes, Lisa Armstrong in all the leading publications. He is stocked at 75 well known stores worldwide.

A coveted fashion jury in a leading Indian publication OUTLOOK adjudged him to be the Best Indian Fashion Designer and featured him on the cover of its March 2006 issue. Manish opened his first Manish Arora franchise store in Villa Moda, Kuwait and another Manish Arora Fish Fry store at Crescent at The Qutub, New Delhi in 2006.

In 2007 the first Fish Fry for Reebok concept store opened at the Garden of Five Senses, New Delhi and Manish teamed up with make up & cosmetics giant MAC for designing a signature collection. He has also collaborated with Swatch for a limited edition of watches.

"Indian by Manish Arora" a brand designed for the growing Indian market for women's wear is licensed to another reputed fashion company. Manish was invited to show his collection at the very prestigious "Fashion in Motion" held at Victoria and Albert Museum, London in September of 2007.

Manish will be showing his Spring/Summer -2008 collection during the Paris Fashion Week.

Ted Baker is a British clothing retail company, known for applying twists to their products, and has become a UK designer label through word of mouth rather than advertising.

Ted Baker's managing director Ray Kelvin started his first store in March 1988 in Glasgow, quickly followed by Manchester and Plymouth and Nottingham. Initially Ted Baker exclusively offered men's dress shirts, and offered dry cleaning with every shirt they sold. Ray had limited funding available, so rather than advertise, he relied on word of mouth and the creation of a personality to anchor the brand.

As a consequence, Ted Baker grew more successful as a brand (dry cleaning was no longer offered as the label grew).

Two years later, a store in Covent Garden opened and Kelvin bought the company outright from part-owners Goldberg and Sons. Additional stores in Soho, Nottingham and Leeds opened in 1994. In 1995, Ted Baker launched a new range, Ted Baker Woman.

Ted Baker has since become a global brand, which produces men's, women's and children's clothing. The company also produces fragrances, eyewear and accessories. It sells a range of cosmetics under the name Ted Baker Bodywear; these are marketed exclusively through Boots in the UK. Ted Baker recently released two mobile phones in the UK - the Ted Baker Button and Ted Baker Needle, in association with Samsung and HTC respectively.

The term designer label refers to clothing and other personal accessory items sold under an often prestigious marquee which is commonly named after a designer. The term is most often only applied to luxury items. Examples includes labels such as Gucci, Armani, Calvin Klein, Versace, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Valentino, Chanel and others which are derived from the company's founder and most iconic designer. Other clothing (and accessories) marquee names do not directly refer to the company's founder: for example, Dooney & Bourke, United Colors of Benetton, and L. L. Bean may be referred to as designer labels. While members of the upper middle class, or the mass affluent, are perhaps the most commonly targeted customers of these designer labels, some marquees such as Cartier tend to a wealthier customer base.

While a relationship between consumer products and social class may exist to some extent, it should be noted that any notion connecting consumer products to class status is of highly subjective and vague nature. Especially as those targeted by designer labels may or may not consider the purchase of a designer label product.

Arnold Scaasi (born May 8, 1931) is an acclaimed fashion designer who has created gowns for First Ladies Mamie Eisenhower, Jacqueline Kennedy, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush, in addition to such notable personalities as Joan Crawford, Ivana Trump, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, Lauren Bacall, Diahann Carroll, Elizabeth Taylor, Catherine Deneuve, Brooke Astor, and Mary Tyler Moore.

Scaasi was born Arnold Isaacs in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the son of a furrier. His decision to pursue a career in fashion was made at the age of fourteen during a trip to Australia to visit his stylish aunt. He returned to Montreal to study at the Cotnoir-Capponi School of Design and completed his education at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne in Paris. He apprenticed at the House of Paquin before moving to New York City to work with designer Charles James.

In the early 1950s, Scaasi's designs began appearing in a variety of print ads, including one for General Motors photographed by Edgar de Evia. During the shoot he met Robert Denning, who suggested he reverse his last name to give himself an Italian flair. Under his new name he achieved the December 1955 cover of Vogue, which led to his starting a ready-to-wear line the following year. He won the prestigious Coty Fashion Critics Award in 1958.

Bucking the trend for affordable fashions, Scaasi opened a couture salon catering to a clientele of socialites and celebrities in 1964. He was noted for his tailored suits and glamorous evening wear and cocktail dresses trimmed with feathers, fur, sequins, or fine embroidery. In 1968, he caught the eye of a worldwide audience when Barbra Streisand wore his sheer overblouse and pants ensemble to collect her Academy Award for Funny Girl. The media attention made him a household name overnight. He later designed Streisand's contemporary wear for the 1970 film On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and costumes for Shirley Maclaine and Susan Sarandon in Loving Couples (1980) and Sally Field in Kiss Me Goodbye (1982).

Scaasi was presented with the Council of Fashion Designers of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. Over the years, major retrospectives of his work have been presented at various venues, including Kent State University, Ohio State University, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and the New-York Historical Society. The inaugural gown he designed for Barbara Bush is on display in the Smithsonian Institution.

After being out of the limelight for several years, Scaasi appeared on Martha Stewart's syndicated daytime series in May 2007 to announce he was returning to the ready-to-wear market.