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Learn about the life, success and style of American fashion designer Cynthia Rowley.
Transcript
Female: Chic American fashion designer Cynthia Rowley has become one of the most recognizable in the world of fashion with her unusual fun and sophisticated designs. Growing up in Barrington Illinois, Rowley was only seven when she created her first dress. After high school she attended the School of Art Institute of Chicago and sold her first collection to a number of leading stores in New York. Her collections have grown into now women’s wear, men’s wear, shoes, eyewear and accessories just to mention a few; and it’s sold in her stores that is spread out all across the world from the United states to Asia, and even on her online boutique. Her collections have described to have a wit of the carefree simple spirit while also being flirty and vibrant. She launched her own business in the early 1980’s, and since then it has grown into an award winning designer mingling with the rich and famous, and even dressing some well known stars such as Rebecca Remain who turned up at the Hollywood Style Awards in 2006 to accept her Hollywood Award wearing a black and blue bowtie Cynthia Rowley satin dress. As an avid fan of contemporary art, Rowley can sometimes show her unusual tastes in her collections. In 1996 she was one of the top designers in New York and was among the twenty-six designers who teamed with designated apprentices to show a range of summer and autumn clothes made entirely from threads coming from recycled plastic bottles. Cynthia Rowley: I have played around with lot of ideas with recycling things using bottle caps and you know, different things on a garment, sort of for fun, but I think really where you can really make a difference is by using fabrics that are out from recycled materials. Female: It took thirty-five thousand plastic bottles to make fifty-two eco-spanned garments that will model at the Fall-Spring Show in New York City. The fashion designer was also inspired to put Tupperware on the cat walks in 2005. At a New York Fashion Runway Show, Rowley had Tupperware accessories for the models. And for her idea of having models float down the runway, she used Tupperware for plastic-soled shoes; and also designed custom Tupperware headbands. It may seem like an unusual idea, but Rowley believed that such Tupperware designs could make it to the museum of modern art or the Gougenheim. Being a mother who is often hurried and doesn’t have too much time to get dressed, she used this as inspiration for her 2006 collection which focused on polished feminine dresses with high boots. The result was fun and girly with a grown-up attitude as models hit the runway in an explosion of color mostly variations of blue with some deep red and bright clothes. Fabric ranged from silks to metallic mesh and brocade. Dress necklines vary from V-necks to cow-necks; and boots have whimsical details like gold embellishments and pink-colored heels. This collection for Rowley had a sweet theme—kids to old women with a fun sense of style. Her Spring ’08 collection at New York fashion week had a sporty yet designedly feminine feel, which was inspired by the French 03:47 class of the 1970’s. Cynthia Rowley: That’s a package and everything in sporty details so—which I think makes it more modern and you know, less retro directly. Female: Using a lot of silk chiffon, her lines were long and lean, and her colors vary from cobalt blue to camel. And in keeping with her sporty theme, at the end of the show, her models clumsily biked-off stage. Her creative efforts have proved successful being honored with awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, receiving the esteemed 04:24 Award for women’s wear; followed a few seasons later with the New Men’s Wear Design Talent Award. With her outgoing personality and whimsical creations, Cynthia Rowley’s placed in the fashion industry as one of America’s most stylish designers, has certainly being cemented.
