Alan J. Flusser (born 16 May 1945) is an American author and designer of men's clothing. He owns and operates Alan Flusser Custom in New York City. [1] [2]
Flusser was born in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1979 he founded Alan Flusser Designs. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. [3]
In 1985 he launched Alan Flusser Custom which focuses on custom and made-to-measure suits.
Flusser designed the wardrobe for Gordon Gekko [4] (played by Michael Douglas) in Wall Street and designed clothing for the films Barbarians at the Gate , Scent of a Woman , and American Psycho (film) starring Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman. [5]
Flusser had huge influence on popular culture through movies that today have cult following, most notably Wall Street and American Psycho. He played a major role in promotion of style inspired by 1930s, which is today accepted as a golden age of men's fashion. In his own words:
For the first time American men realized that clothing should not be worn to hide the natural lines of the body, but, rather, to conform to them, thereby enhancing the male physique. At the same time, clothes should not be too obvious. Instead, they had to become part of the man who was wearing them. The idea of clothing was not to set the man apart (as had been the case for centuries, when kings and noblemen dressed primarily to accomplish just that) but to allow him to be an individual among individuals…. Americans had finally learned that the goal of good clothing was to flatter rather than be conspicuous. [6]
Flusser won the 1983 Coty Award as Top Menswear Designer, [7] and received the Cutty Sark Award in 1987. [8]
A suit, lounge suit, or business suit is a set of clothes comprising a suit jacket and trousers of identical textiles generally worn with a collared dress shirt, necktie, and dress shoes. A skirt suit is similar, but with a matching skirt instead of trousers. It is currently considered semi-formal wear or business wear in contemporary Western dress codes, however when the suit was originally developed it was considered an informal or more casual option compared to the prevailing clothing standards of aristocrats and businessmen. The lounge suit originated in 19th-century Britain as sportswear and British country clothing, which is why it was seen as more casual than citywear at that time, with the roots of the suit coming from early modern Western Europe formal court or military clothes. After replacing the black frock coat in the early 20th century as regular daywear, a sober one-coloured suit became known as a lounge suit.
Givenchy is a French luxury fashion and perfume house. It hosts the brand of haute couture and ready-to-wear clothing, accessories, perfumes and cosmetics of Parfums Givenchy. The house of Givenchy was founded in 1952 by designer Hubert de Givenchy and is a member of Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture et du Prêt-à-Porter. It is currently owned by luxury conglomerate LVMH.
A dress shirt, button shirt, button-front, button-front shirt, or button-up shirt is a garment with a collar and a full-length opening at the front, which is fastened using buttons or shirt studs. A button-down or button-down shirt is a dress shirt with a button-down collar – a collar having the ends fastened to the shirt with buttons.
Kim Niklas Jones is an English fashion designer. He is a graduate of Central St Martins College of Art and Design.
Semi-formal wear or half dress is a grouping of dress codes indicating the sort of clothes worn to events with a level of formality between informal wear and formal wear. In the modern era, the typical interpretation for men is black tie for evening wear and black lounge suit for day wear, corresponded by either a pant suit or an evening gown for women.
Willi Donnell Smith was an American fashion designer. At the time of his death, Smith was regarded as one of the most successful African-American designers in the fashion industry. His company, WilliWear Limited, launched in 1976 and by 1986 grossed over $25 million in sales. After Smith's death, his business partner, Laurie Mallet, continued the line with various designers creating collections. Without Smith, the company floundered and due to financial problems and poor sales, WilliWear Limited ceased production in 1990. WilliWear was the first clothing company to create womenswear and menswear under the same label. The accessibility and affordability of Smith's clothing helped to democratize fashion.
A court shoe or pump is a shoe with a low-cut front, or vamp, with either a shoe buckle or a black bow as ostensible fastening. Deriving from the 17th- and 18th-century dress shoes with shoe buckles, the vamped pump shape emerged in the late 18th century. By the turn of the 19th century, shoe buckles were increasingly replaced by black bows, which has remained the contemporary style for men's formal wear, leather or patent leather evening pumps ever since. This latter style is sometimes also called an opera pump or opera slipper.
Nino Cerruti was an Italian businessman and stylist. He founded his own haute couture house, Cerruti 1881, in 1967 in Paris. He managed the Italian family business Lanificio Fratelli Cerruti, which was founded in 1881 by his grandfather.
A lapel is a folded flap of cloth on the front of a jacket or coat below the collar. It is most commonly found on formal clothing and suit jackets. Usually it is formed by folding over the front edge of the jacket or coat and sewing it to the collar, an extra piece of fabric around the back of the neck.
Most jackets have a variety of inner pockets, and two main outer pockets, which are generally either patch pockets, flap pockets, or jetted pockets.
Tattersall is a style of Tartan (plaid) pattern woven into cloth. The pattern is composed of regularly-spaced thin, even vertical warp stripes, repeated horizontally in the weft, thereby forming squares.
Jhane Barnes is an American designer of clothing, textiles, eyeglasses, carpets and furniture, and the owner of the Jhane Barnes fashion design company. Barnes is known for incorporating complex, mathematical patterns into her clothing designs. She uses computer software to design textile patterns, which then translates the patterns into jacquard loom instructions, which are sent to mills to be woven into fabric.
John Varvatos is an international American men's lifestyle brand founded by John Varvatos, that designs, manufactures, and retails high-end fashion, using rock aesthetics as the foundation of the brand's designs. The fashion collection is distributed in 10 freestanding John Varvatos boutiques across the US, as well as in high-end department stores throughout the world. The John Varvatos Headquarters are located in New York City.
Andrew Fezza is an Italian American menswear designer, sometimes described as the "Giorgio Armani of America".
Robert Graham is a New York-based luxury men's fashion brand launched in 2001, taking its name from its co-founders, fashion designer Robert Stock and textile designer Graham Fowler. It is known for its use of complicated and colorful fabric patterns, including contrasting patterns inside the cuffs of its shirt sleeves.
Todd Snyder is an American fashion designer based in New York City. He founded his eponymous fashion label in 2011, and has been called "the most influential menswear designer of his generation" by GQ. The brand was acquired by American Eagle Outfitters in 2015, and reports $100 million in annual sales revenue.
Hans Werner "John" Weitz was an American menswear designer who initiated licensing products and selling affordable but stylish clothing that featured his image in the advertising. He had a second career as a writer and historian. Weitz was also well known for being the husband of actress Susan Kohner and father of directors Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz.
The Cutty Sark Men's Fashion Awards were awards given for men's fashion design from 1979 to 1989.
Social standards typically restrict people's dress according to gender. Trousers were traditionally a male form of dress, frowned upon for women. However, during the 1800s, female spies were introduced, and Vivandières wore a certain uniform with a dress over trousers. Women activists during that time would also decide to wear trousers; for example, Luisa Capetillo, a women's rights activist and the first woman in Puerto Rico to wear trousers in public.