Victor Costa

Last updated
Victor Costa
Born(1935-12-17)17 December 1935
Houston, Texas, U.S.
Education
Label(s)
  • Victor Costa Bridal
  • Victor Costa
  • Victor Costa Collection
Spouse(s)
  • Terry
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1958;div. 1986)​
  • Jerry Ann Woodfin
    ​
    (m. 2015)​
Children2

Victor Costa (born December 17, 1935) is an American fashion designer. Dubbed the "King of Copycats," he attained international fame in the mid-1970s for mimicking high-end European styles, tailoring them to his American audiences for affordable prices.

Contents

In 1987, the New York Times reported that, along with Christian Lacroix and Arnold Scaasi, Costa "is widely recognized... as a significant contributor to the current vogue for flamboyant, super-feminine dresses that bare the shoulders, hug the waistline and billow and swirl over the hips." He founded Victor Costa, Inc. and later Victor Costa Bridal, and designed for several large retail outlets well into the 1990s. At one time, he was delivering merchandise to five different markets a year.

Costa is known for his extensive list of loyal customers, including Betsy Bloomingdale, Brooke Shields and Ivana Trump; he has also designed for First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson and Rosalynn Carter, as well as President Richard Nixon's daughters, Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower.

Early life

Costa was born in Houston's Fifth Ward, the second of three children. His father was a metal worker from Sicily. His family lived in three rooms behind his grandparents' grocery store. As a young boy, he developed a love for the fashions of Hollywood celebrities and began designing his own paper dolls and selling them to his classmates for two cents each. [1] As a teenager, he designed prom dresses for his high school classmates. [2] He went on to attend the Pratt Institute in New York and later University of Houston, where he studied fashion; he traveled to Paris to attend the École d'Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, an institute operated by the Chambre Syndicale, the fashion trade association in Paris.

Career

Returning from Paris, Costa began selling his fashion sketches to designers and merchandizers including Oleg Cassini and Ceil Chapman. [2]

He soon went to work at the dress house of Suzy Perette, a dress house, where he developed a technique to visually capture the basic essence of popular European designs and styles.

He moved to Dallas, bought a fashion house — the Ann Murray company — and began manufacturing his designs in a 50,000 square foot facility. His company sold $1 million in product during its first year of operation. [2] Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus became his top customers; by 1987, he was selling them $3.6 million and $3 million worth of product, respectively, every year. He also sold more than $1 million annually to Nordstrom, Bergdorf Goodman, and Marshall Field. [2] By 1988, his company was grossing $50 million annually. [1]

In 2000, he introduced the Victor Costa Occasion Collection on QVC, where it attained $500,000 in sales. By 2008, that number had grown to more than $10 million. [3]

He is a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. [3]

Personal life

Costa married his high school sweetheart, Terry, in 1958 while studying in Paris. They had two children together, Kevin and Adrienne, and divorced after 28 years of marriage in 1986. [1]

In 1984 Costa met Clay Cope, who became his romantic partner for 28 years. [4]

In 2012, Costa married Jerry Ann Woodfin. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

Pierre Cardin French fashion designer

Pierre Cardin is an Italian-born naturalised-French fashion designer. He is known for his avant-garde style and his Space Age designs. He prefers geometric shapes and motifs, often ignoring the female form. He advanced into unisex fashions, sometimes experimental, and not always practical. He founded his fashion house in 1950 and introduced the "bubble dress" in 1954.

Balenciaga is a luxury fashion house founded in 1917 by Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga in San Sebastian, Spain and currently based in Paris. Balenciaga had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior. His bubble skirts and odd, feminine, yet "modernistic" silhouettes became the trademarks of the house. Balenciaga closed in 1972 and was reopened under new ownership in 1986. The brand is now owned by the French multinational holding company Kering.

Nicole Miller

Nicole Miller is an American fashion designer and businesswoman.

Fernando Sánchez was a Spanish fashion designer. He was known for his provocative lingerie collections, which, though designed for elegant boudoirs, were often worn in public. He created the two famous dresses of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" music video. Sanchez was awarded several Coty fashion awards, as well as a Council of Fashion Designers of America Award in 1981.

Arnold Isaacs, known as Arnold Scaasi, was a Canadian fashion designer who has created gowns for First Ladies Mamie Eisenhower, 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, Arlene Francis, Mitzi Gaynor and Mary Tyler Moore.

Jeanne Paquin French fashion designer

Jeanne Paquin (1869–1936) was a leading French fashion designer, known for her resolutely modern and innovative designs. She was the first major female couturier and one of the pioneers of the modern fashion business.

Paris Fashion Week Fashion industry event in Paris, France

Paris Fashion Week is a series of designer presentations held biannually in Paris, France with spring/summer and autumn/winter events held each year. Dates are determined by the French Fashion Federation. Paris Fashion Week is held at venues throughout the city.

Giambattista Valli

Giambattista Valli is an Italian fashion designer. He is from Rome, Italy. His collections, both ready to wear and Haute couture are presented semi-annually during Paris Fashion Week.

The Fédération française de la couture, du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créateurs de mode is the governing body for the French fashion industry. The Federation was created in 1973, growing out of an older trade association, the Chambre syndicale de la haute couture parisienne which was created in 1868.

Patrick Kelly (fashion designer)

Patrick Kelly was a celebrated African-American fashion designer who came to fame in France. Among his accomplishments, he was the first American to be admitted to the Chambre syndicale du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créateurs de mode, the prestigious governing body of the French ready-to-wear industry. Kelly's designs were noted for their exuberance, humor and references to pop culture and Black folklore.

Jacques Heim 20th-century French fashion designer

Jacques Heim was a French fashion designer and costume designer for theater and film, and was a manufacturer of women's furs. From 1930 to his death in 1967, he ran the fashion house Jacques Heim, which closed in 1969. He was president of the Paris Chambre Syndicale de la haute couture from 1958 to 1962, a period of transition from haute couture to ready-to-wear clothing.

<i>Haute couture</i> The creation of exclusive, custom-fitted clothing

Haute couture is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is high-end fashion that is constructed by hand from start to finish, made from high-quality, expensive, often unusual fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable sewers—often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. Couture translates literally from French as "dressmaking", sewing, or needlework and is also used as a common abbreviation of haute couture and refers to the same thing in spirit. Haute translates literally to "high". An haute couture garment is always made for an individual client, tailored specifically for the wearer's measurements and body stance and only in Paris. Considering the amount of time, money, and skill allotted to each completed piece, haute couture garments are also described as having no price tag: budget is not relevant. In modern France, haute couture is a protected name that may not be used except by firms that meet certain well-defined standards.

Antthony Mark Hankins is an American fashion designer who founded Antthony Mark Hankins Inc. in 1994. By his mid-twenties he had built his own $40 million business and was named by Newsweek as one of the top 100 people to watch in America.

Rabih Kayrouz is a Lebanese fashion designer, creator and founder of the fashion house Maison Rabih Kayrouz, established in Paris in 2008.

Robert Abi Nader

Robert Abi Nader is a Lebanese fashion designer.

Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers

Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers was a membership organisation founded in 1942 to promote the British fashion and textile industry and create luxury couture to sell abroad for the war effort. It aimed to build the relationship between government and fashion industry and represent the interests of London couturiers. The organisation continued after the war and sought to present itself as an alternative to the revived Paris couture industry.

Alexis Mabille French fashion designer

Alexis Mabille is a French fashion designer who is the creative director of his namesake label, Alexis Mabille.

Tony Ward is a Lebanese-Italian fashion designer, whose creations are present in over 60 stores across the world.

Victor Joris (1929–2013) was an American fashion designer and fashion illustrator. He was active between 1945 until the 1970s.

Loris Azzaro was a French-Italian fashion designer. He rose to prominence in the 1960s with his flamboyant dresses and he went on to become well known for his perfumes.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bonnie Johnson and Lee Powell (August 22, 1988). "Copycat King Victor Costa Cuts the High Costa Designer Duds". People. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Morris, Bernadine (December 29, 1987). "A Cost-Cutting Designer Who's Riding a Wave". The New York Times. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 "Victor Costa". Council of Fashion Designers of America. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Celebrity designer loves Sherman". www.newstimes.com. August 7, 2008.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.