BlackBook Magazine

Four top designers become easy targets as they embrace affordable fashion. Ready, aim, catwalk!

Nick Haramis

From left to right, designers Liz Lange, Erin Fetherston, Isaac Mizrahi, and Keanan Duffty.

Yesterday, in Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall, Target unveiled “The World’s First Model-less Fashion Show.” As one might expect, the whole thing was rather disappointing, yet another example of computers replacing perfectly good humanoids. Isaac Mizrahi charmed the junket junkies, smiling (strained) and posing (effortless) in front of projected, kinetic holograms. Erin Fetherston, Vogue editor-turned-maternity maven Liz Lange, Bowie-inspired designer Keanan Duffty, and others stood by, admiring their cyber collections. Soccer moms and curious tourists swarmed the proscenium, while headless torsos shimmied in a rather uninspired three dimensions. Below, BlackBook Online talks to the four top designers about fashion deals, Ziggy Stardust, and the unbearable lightness of $1800 sweaters.

BLACKBOOK: Do you credit yourself with making this shift towards affordable designer fashion?

ISAAC MIZRAHI: Honestly, people have tried before. Halston tried in the ‘80s. And I know that Todd Oldham was at Target for a short time, and it worked. But it’s been a real commitment of mine to make fashion accessible. It’s one thing to make $1800 sweaters and expect that you’re influencing women across the country. But now I feel like I’m really befriending them, really helping them. You should see the mail I get.

BB: Letters?

IM: One girl wrote me that her fiancé was going to Iraq and she needed to marry him before he left. Problem was she couldn’t afford a dress and didn’t know how she was going to save the money, so her father bought her one of my dresses. I started crying.

BB: Do you worry that something like this loses the excitement of a live runway show?

IM: I do, but right now it’s so incredibly new, and there’s something about new technology that really turns me on.

BB: When you first started doing this, were there many naysayers?

IM: There still are. There are customers who stopped buying my clothes at Bergdorf’s when I started doing this. Fine. Now I have more customers than I ever had over there. There was a retailer who stopped buying my shoes when I signed this deal with Target. And then my shoe business grew exponentially in other department stores.

BB: You don’t seem to revere celebrities the way most people do. Why is that?

IM: I don’t know why you would speak differently to people like that. Aside from being celebrities and fantastic artists, they’re people. And again, I’m sure there are people who say it’s wrong, wrong, wrong. But for every person who says something I do is wrong, there are at least three people who say it’s right.

BLACKBOOK: Please tell me that you’re happy to work without models. I want to hear someone say, “I can’t stand those skinny bitches.”

ERIN FETHERSTON: [Unamused.] We could never do it without models.

BB: Yes, of course. Of course. Um, how important are these headless bodies to the presentation?

EF: They really make it all about the clothes. It’s the idea that you can really see yourself in them. It’s kind of anonymous.

BB: Are you interested, specifically, in creating less exclusive designs?

EF: I don’t think that’s ever the intention behind higher-end collections, to be not inclusive. It’s just the nature of fashion. Creating clothing is so much work, and the result is so intricate and so special.

BB: Are you good with computers?

EF: I’m pretty good with Photoshop.

BLACKBOOK: What’s the best part about doing a fashion show without live models?

LIZ LANGE: It’s really nice not comparing yourself to some superhuman model, and just being able say, “That’s a cute dress, maybe I’ll go try that on.”

BB: What about making fashion available to the masses appeals to you?

LL: I started out doing a high-end maternity line, dressing women who lived near Madison Avenue or Beverly Hills. But I realized that I wanted to be able to dress pregnant women across the world. And I knew that by going to Target I could reach them. I think every pregnant woman deserves to look her best.

BB: Do colleagues think you’re crazy for working with Target?

LL: When you’re an entrepreneur, you’re so used to naysayers that you’re like [plugs her ears, singing]. There were some people who didn’t understand it at the beginning, and five years later, the joke is on them. I don’t think there’s anyone who wouldn’t give their eye teeth to be a design partner with Target at the moment.

Bowie by Keanan Duffty for Target, above.

BLACKBOOK: Why the interest is mass-produced fashion?

KEANAN DUFFTY: Target really does something edgy yet mainstream. When I started in 1999, not many people wanted to bring music and fashion together.

BB: Fashion has always seemed pretty rock ‘n’ roll to me.

KD: Fashion people don’t want to admit to being influenced by music. And music people absolutely don’t want to admit to being influenced by fashion.

BB: What about David Bowie’s style resonates with you?

KD: Androgyny. When I was a kid, Bowie’s look and his persona were very refreshing. You see it in the Rolling Stones when they started, and in the Beatles, Annie Lennox, Karen O. All great rock icons have that androgyny in them.

BB: How much input does Bowie have in this collection?

KD: He’s seen every design every step of the way.

BB: Does he approve?

KD: [Takes out a picture from his pocket.] This is from the jumpsuit that he wore at the start of Ziggy Stardust. This was all David’s idea. That, to me—"Let’s redo that fabric"—is a great thing. And you can’t really want more from him. David doesn’t pretend to be a fashion designer. If you asked him what kind of fabric this is, he wouldn’t pretend to know.

Photos courtesy Albert Ferreira.