Designer Spotlight - Isaac Mizrahi

In July on my trip to NYC in addition to seeing the amazing exhibition at the Met I also went to the Isaac Mizrahi exhibition that was on at the Jewish Museum.  The Jewish Museum was a short walk from the Met, so I thought why not.  The exhibition really did pale in comparison to Manus x Machina, but still some amazing things by the designer.

Some people may know the designer as the judge on Project Runway or from his collaboration with Target, but there is so much more he has done.  A true New Yorker he attended the high school of the performing arts and went on to Parsons.  He is a staple on QVC and lent his design skills to several theatrical production and films.  

I didn't feel the exhibition really showed the story of his success, I didn't see a flow to the curation of the exhibition which I was a bit disappointed with, but I will say I loved his use of colour,it brings the garments to life.  These were some of my favourites from the exhibition which, unfortunately has now closed.

All photos taken by me.

Designer Spotlight - Anya Hindmarch

Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing the wonderful handbag designer Anya Hindmarch speak at the China Exchange.  
Firstly, let me just say the China Exchange is amazing, they host speakers from all different types of disciplines with the Prudential Speaker series.  Tickets are as cheap as 6.00 pounds if you get them early enough.  The space is quite intimate holding about 100 people.  I'm so sad that I have only discovered this now.
I had never heard of Anya Hindmarch prior to moving to London and I don't think I had ever seen a handbag of hers in the US.  She has actually been designing handbags for 30 years and is quite popular in the UK and in the Asian markets.  A couple of things that I took away for the discussion

• Her logo is a bow, it is a nod to her mother who always gave beautifully wrapped gifts with a bow
• She received a lovely handbag when she was 15 years old and knew then that she wanted to be a handbag designer, she loved the craftsmanship
• She doesn't like logos or poorly made bags and believes that a handbag can be an investment
• There is a bespoke portion of the business that she loves, and loves being able to personalize items for people
• Her handbags are meant to be fun
• Anya believes that determination is the key to her success and also visualizing success
• So I didn't know this, but apparently when Solange Knowles and Jay Z had that fight in the elevator it was an Anya Hindmarch bag that she threw at him.  After the incident Anya and her team were inundated with calls from press for her reaction, but they handed it well, posting a photo of the bag on social media with the caption "Crisp Packet Clutch worth fighting for"

A genuinely nice woman, she deserves all of her success.

Her bags are quite expensive.

These are some my favourites!

All images taken from Anya Hindmarch's website