Fashion Definitions — fashion history, brands and industry terms from Apparel Search
Elie Tahari is a luxury fashion designer of men's and women's clothing who evolved a $500 million business, with a presence on five continents, in more than 600 US stores and in five free-standing boutiques. Of Persian origin, he grew up in an Israeli orphanage, immigrated to the United States in the 1970s with little money, and learned the fashion retail business in Manhattan's Garment District.
Elie Tahari is a luxury fashion designer of men and women's clothing. He has evolved a $500 million business, with a presence on five continents, in more than 600 US stores and in five free-standing boutiques.
Tahari is of Persian origin and grew up in an Israeli orphanage. He immigrated to the United States in the 1970s with little money and after his arrival in New York, sought work in Manhattan's The Garment District, where he learned about the fashion retail business. His position selling clothing from a boutique in Greenwich Village introduced him to women's fashion. He began designing women's fashion inspired by the New York City nightclub scene.
Throughout the 1970s, Tahari remained focused on women's fashions, and his designs were well received. He was one of the first fashion designers to open a boutique on Madison Avenue, in 1974.
In the 1980s, Tahari turned his focus to the tailored suit, with designs geared to look both smart and sexy.
After his 46th birthday he met his future wife. In his words, "Rory is my greatest love, and therefore, my greatest inspiration." In a collaborative effort, this husband-wife team has tripled the size of the company in the last five years, and launched the Elie Tahari Collection.
Now that the company has branched out, Tahari has been able to attain the likes of Agyness Deyn, Daria Werbowy and Eugenia Volodina to model his clothing.
Women have been drawn to Elie Tahari designs for over three decades, and this devoted following continues to revel in the feminine embellishments, sensual fabrics, and subtle textures that have come to define the Elie Tahari collection.
In the United States, Tahari has boutiques in New York, Boston, East Hampton, Atlanta, Bal Harbour, Boca Raton, and Las Vegas. In the 2007 movie Enchanted, two characters are shown shopping at Tahari's New York City store.
He and his former business partner Andrew Rosen co-founded the Theory fashion brand in 1997. Tahari designed the clothes and Rosen was in charge of marketing and sales. Elie Tahari sold his share of the business for a reported $53 million in 2003 and is no longer involved in the company.
External Sources
|
The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elie_Tahari 2/7/06 Modified by Apparel Search. |
Designer Definition (from U.S Department of Labor)
Elie Tahari is of Persian origin and grew up in an Israeli orphanage. He immigrated to the United States in the 1970s with little money, and after arriving in New York he sought work in Manhattan's Garment District, where he learned about the fashion retail business. The order of that education matters: he learned retail first, from inside the trade that makes and sells clothing in volume, before he was a designer with his own name. His position selling clothing from a boutique in Greenwich Village introduced him to women's fashion — the customer-facing end of the same business — and he began designing women's fashion inspired by the New York City nightclub scene. A designer formed by the Garment District, a Village boutique and the city's nightlife was drawing on three different New Yorks at once: production, retail and after-dark dressing.
Throughout the 1970s Tahari remained focused on women's fashions, and his designs were well received. He was one of the first fashion designers to open a boutique on Madison Avenue, in 1974 — a statement of position as much as a shop, placing a young designer on the avenue associated with established luxury at the start of his career rather than at its peak. In the 1980s he turned his focus to the tailored suit, with designs geared to look both smart and sexy. That pairing defines the pivot: tailoring carries the smart half, the language of business and structure, while the sexy half keeps the sensibility of the nightclub-inspired work it followed. The suit was not treated as the opposite of his earlier dressing but as the same designerly instinct applied to a more formal garment, and the combination of smart and sexy became the direction of the business for the decade.
After his 46th birthday Tahari met his future wife, Rory, whom he calls his greatest love and therefore his greatest inspiration. In a collaborative effort, the husband-wife team has tripled the size of the company in the last five years and launched the Elie Tahari Collection. The business described is substantial: a $500 million business, with a presence on five continents, in more than 600 US stores and in five free-standing boutiques, with United States boutiques listed in New York, Boston, East Hampton, Atlanta, Bal Harbour, Boca Raton and Las Vegas. Now that the company has branched out, Tahari has been able to attain models such as Agyness Deyn, Daria Werbowy and Eugenia Volodina to model his clothing, and in the 2007 movie Enchanted two characters are shown shopping at Tahari's New York City store. Women have been drawn to Elie Tahari designs for over three decades, and the devoted following is described as revelling in the feminine embellishments, sensual fabrics and subtle textures that have come to define the Elie Tahari collection — a signature stated in terms of surface and feeling rather than silhouette alone.
Tahari and his former business partner Andrew Rosen co-founded the Theory fashion brand in 1997. The division of labour was clean from the start: Tahari designed the clothes and Rosen was in charge of marketing and sales. That split mirrors Tahari's own formation — design on one side, the retail and selling knowledge he had learned in the Garment District and the Greenwich Village boutique on the other, here supplied by a partner. In 2003 Tahari sold his share of the business for a reported $53 million and is no longer involved in the company. Theory therefore sits in his record as a complete second act: a brand co-founded, built with a defined role, and exited for a reported eight-figure sum, while the Elie Tahari business itself — the tailored suits, the feminine embellishments, the boutiques — continued under his own name.
After immigrating to the United States in the 1970s with little money, Tahari sought work in Manhattan's Garment District, where he learned about the fashion retail business. His position selling clothing from a boutique in Greenwich Village introduced him to women's fashion.
Throughout the 1970s he remained focused on women's fashions, designing women's fashion inspired by the New York City nightclub scene, and he was one of the first designers to open a boutique on Madison Avenue, in 1974. In the 1980s he turned his focus to the tailored suit, designed to look both smart and sexy.
Tahari co-founded the Theory fashion brand in 1997 with his former business partner Andrew Rosen; Tahari designed the clothes and Rosen was in charge of marketing and sales. Tahari sold his share of the business for a reported $53 million in 2003 and is no longer involved in the company.