Fashion Designer Guide

Fashion Design   Apparel Definition

Fashion Designer By Country

American Fashion Designers

British Fashion Designers

Italian Fashion Designers

Japanese Fashion Designers

Belgian Fashion Designers

Indian Fashion Designers

French Fashion Designers

How the Guide Is Organised

The Fashion Designer Guide is a definition guide: each name in the list leads to a definition of that designer, and the names are arranged alphabetically by the name as listed, running on this first page from Alexander McQueen through André Courrèges, Anja Gockel, Ann Demeulemeester, Anna Sui and Antonio D'Amico to the B entries and beyond. Because the ordering follows the listed name, houses and partnerships sit inside the same sequence as individuals. Bottega Veneta appears among the B names, Coco Chanel and Chanel are listed as one entry, Christian Louboutin is identified in the list itself as a French footwear designer, and a Bruno who is a fictional designer is included between Bottega Veneta and Calvin Klein. The alphabet, not the category, decides the neighbours — which is why a footwear designer, a fashion house, a fictional designer and several generations of couturiers can all share one continuous list.

The Scope of Page 1: A to J

Page 1 covers the first stretch of the alphabet, ending at Judith Leiber. Within that stretch the range of fashion history is wide. Charles Frederick Worth and Cristobal Balenciaga stand for earlier eras of couture; Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Christian Lacroix and Hubert de Givenchy represent major Paris houses; Calvin Klein, Carolina Herrera, Donna Karan and Gloria Vanderbilt represent American design; and Daniel Hechter, David Holah, Dirk Bikkembergs and Dolce and Gabbana bring the list towards the later twentieth century. Some entries are double names — Gianni Versace listed with Versace, Guccio Gucci as the name behind his house, Diesel listed with Renzo Rosso, Donna Karan with DKNY — so the guide records both the person and the label a reader might search under. Elsa Peretti, Elsa Schiaparelli, Emilio Pucci, Ermenegildo Zegna, Estee Lauder, Fausto Sarli, Geoffrey Beene, Giorgio Armani, Hattie Carnegie, Hedi Slimane, Helmut Lang, Isaac Mizrahi, Issey Miyake, Jean Patou, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Jil Sander and John Galliano complete a page that is a cross-section of fashion rather than a single school or country.

Definitions That Have to Keep Moving

The guide is explicit about its own limits. These are definitions, designer information is subject to change as their story evolves, and keeping the section up to date is not easy because the fashion designers of past and present continue to evolve at a rapid rate in a fast-paced world. That caveat is part of how the guide should be used: an entry fixes a designer's story at the point it was written, and the reader is warned that careers, houses and labels keep moving afterwards. A definition guide covering everyone from Charles Frederick Worth to living designers has to hold finished histories and unfinished ones in the same format, and the notice at the top acknowledges the difference honestly.

Using the Guide and Going Further

The guide also points readers sideways as well as forwards. Anyone searching for fashion brands rather than designers is directed to the Brand Name Fashion page, a reminder that a designer name and a brand name are related but different searches. Fashion designers can also be browsed by country — American, British, Italian, Japanese, Belgian, Indian and French designer lists are all linked — which cuts the same population of designers by nationality instead of by alphabet. Discussions about fashion designers take place at the Fashion Industry Network. And when page 1 ends at Judith Leiber, the list is not finished: Fashion Designer Guide page 2 continues the alphabet from where this page stops. A reader who works through page 1 in order therefore arrives at page 2 already knowing the system — find the initial letter, follow the names in sequence, and open the definition wanted — and the same system governs both halves of the guide.