Peter Speliopoulos, born in 1961 in Springfield, Massachusetts, is an American fashion designer. [1]
Speliopoulos studied fashion at Parsons School of Design in New York and graduated with a BFA in 1981. Speliopoulos is best friends with fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi who also attended Parsons.[ citation needed ] His first job as a fashion designer was as assistant stylist with Laura Biagiotti in Rome in 1982. He then worked briefly at the French couture house of Christian Dior and later for New York sportswear designer Gloria Sachs whose label went out of business in 1992. In 1985, Speliopoulos was named creative director at Carolyne Roehm Inc., a New York fashion house that had been created in 1984. He left in 1991 to become fashion director with Joseph Abboud.
From 1993 to 1997, Speliopoulos then worked as a designer for Donna Karan in New York. He replaced Narciso Rodriguez as head of design for the women's collection at Nino Cerruti in mid-1997. While at Cerruti, he gave the label a fresh modern look using fine detail and exquisite fabrics. He left Cerruti in 2002 to return to New York as Vice President of Design for Donna Karan New York. He has stayed with Donna Karan, a fashion house owned by the French LVMH Group, since then. In 1998 he said that his time at Donna Karan between 1993 and 1997 "was invaluable to me in getting to where I am now at Cerruti."
Speliopoulos has also worked as a costume designer for Karole Armitage, a New York ballet dancer who owns her own dance company. In the summer of 2000, he designed the costumes for the Athens Opera production of The Birds by Aristophanes. The collaboration with Armitage continued until 2003. He has also worked as a costume designer with the Rambert Dance Company in London for which Karole Armitage was a choreographer.
He says that he is always inspired by the construction of Balenciaga, the essentialism of Halston and the genius of Yves St. Laurent. He tries to make his garments a mix of feminine sensuality and men's tailoring, creating versatility in a woman's wardrobe.[ citation needed ]
Speliopoulos - together with his partner for more than 20 years, Robert Turner - is a Friends for Life Annual Fund donor at the GMHC.[ citation needed ]
Donna Karan, also known as DK, is an American fashion designer and the creator of the Donna Karan New York and DKNY clothing labels.
Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion designer. He first gained renown working for Cerruti and then for many others, including Allegri, Bagutta, and Hilton. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, which eventually expanded into music, sport, and luxury hotels. By 2001, Armani was acclaimed as the most successful designer of Italian origin, and is credited with pioneering red-carpet fashion.
Isaac Mizrahi is an American fashion designer, actor, singer, television presenter and chief designer of the Isaac Mizrahi brand for Xcel Brands. Based in New York City, he is best known for his eponymous fashion lines. Mizrahi was previously a judge on Project Runway All Stars. In 2022 he played Amos Hart in the long-running Broadway revival of Chicago.
DKNY is a New York City–based fashion house for men and women, founded in 1984 by Donna Karan. The company specializes in a wide range of fashion products, including clothing, footwear, and accessories.
Karole Armitage is an American dancer and choreographer currently based in New York City. She is artistic director of Armitage Gone! Dance, a contemporary dance company that performs several times annually in New York City as well as touring internationally. She was dubbed the “punk ballerina” in the 1980s. She earned a Tony nomination for her choreography of the Broadway musical Hair.
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.
Cerruti 1881, also known as Cerruti, is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1967 and headquartered in Paris. It was founded by the Italian stylist and fashion producer Nino Cerruti. It was named "1881" because Nino's grandfather established the family woolen mill, Fratelli Cerruti Wool Mill, in Italy in 1881.
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.
David Salle is an American Postmodern painter, printmaker, photographer, and stage designer. Salle was born in Norman, Oklahoma, and lives and works in East Hampton, New York. He earned a BFA and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California, where he studied with John Baldessari. Salle’s work first came to public attention in New York City in the early 1980s.
Narciso Jesus Rodriguez III is an American fashion designer.
Manish Malhotra is an Indian fashion designer, couturier, costume stylist, entrepreneur, filmmaker and revivalist based in Mumbai, India.
Toni Matičevski (1976) is a Melbourne-based Australian fashion designer.
Norman David Levinson known professionally as Norman Norell, was an American fashion designer famed for his elegant gowns, suits, and tailored silhouettes. His designs for the Traina-Norell and Norell fashion houses became famous for their detailing, simple, timeless designs, and tailored construction. By the mid-twentieth century Norell dominated the American fashion industry and in 1968 he launched his own brand of perfume. The designer Gilbert Adrian was the first American designer to add a perfume line in 1945, with his "Saint" and "Sinner" fragrances.
Peter Som is a Chinese American fashion designer. He was creative director for Bill Blass and creative consultant for Tommy Hilfiger, where he designed the women’s wear collection, prior to founding his eponymous label. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Peter Som graduated from Connecticut College in 1993 with a degree in art history. He continued his studies at the Parsons School of Design where he apprenticed with American designers, Michael Kors and Calvin Klein. At Parsons, his talent was recognized through competitions; he won and was presented with the Parsons Gold Thimble Award by Isaac Mizrahi.
Keanan Duffty is a British fashion designer and musician based in New York City. Duffty studied fashion design at Saint Martin's School of Art in London, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He is a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Mentor for the Master's Program in Fashion Styling at Polimoda and Program Director at the Master’s of Professional Studies in Fashion Management at Parsons School of Design.
Prabal Gurung is a Nepalese–American fashion designer based in New York City.
Raghavendra Rathore is an Indian luxury lifestyle designer, creative director, chief design officer and a hotelier. He is also the founder of the bespoke brand Raghavendra Rathore Jodhpur that has made a mark on the fashion scene for being solely responsible for putting the Jodhpuri Bandhgala and Jodhpuri Breeches on the global stage. He has his name in luxury bespoke menswear, Mr. Rathore was one of the Indian Designers to coin his namesake label as a ‘Made in India’ brand, translating traditional Indian ensembles for the global clientele such as the Emir of Qatar, Duchess of York, actors like Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, Mr. Saif Ali Khan and sportspersons like Mr. Virat Kohli. His costume designs for Hollywood movies like "The Gray Man" and Bollywood films like Oh my God, Eklavya & Khoobsurat.
Lesley Mobo is a Filipino fashion designer based in London.
Christian Francis Roth is an American fashion designer based in New York. Roth was awarded the Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent in 1990 at the age of 21 by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Roth's designs were seen frequently throughout the 1990s in publications such as Vogue, Elle, W, New York Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times, and others. Several of Roth’s designs can be found in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute, with work appearing in eight exhibitions from 1993 - 2021.
Chester Weinberg (1930-1985) was an American fashion designer. While he was very highly regarded for his design work in the 1960s and early 1970s, he is now mainly known for being the fashion industry's first high-profile AIDS-related death.