LONDON, United Kingdom — After months of speculation and almost a year of going without a head designer, Halston announced in May that it had appointed Marios Schwab, the half-Austrian half-Greek Lond0n-based designer, as its new Creative Director.

Many in the industry breathed a sigh of relief. Amongst the various names that had been bandied around in the rumour mill, including Olivier Theyskens (apparently the strong choice of Anna Wintour), Schwab’s name was the one that seemed to create the most excitement amongst fashion insiders for his potential to develop commercially viable collections in the spirit of the brand’s DNA.

Making the final cut was no easy task. Amongst others, Schwab had to pass the muster of board members including Bonnie Takhar, Halston’s CEO, Harvey Weinstein, the notoriously demanding Hollywood heavyweight and investor in the Halston brand, and Tamara Mellon, Founder and President of Jimmy Choo. With a vested stake in the Halston brand, each of these big guns also knew that their decision would directly impact the bottom line at a critical time for the newly-relaunched label.

I caught up recently with Marios on a sunny day at London’s Shoreditch House to learn more about his decision to join Halston, his plans for balancing two labels, and his advice for young designers just starting out in the business of fashion.

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Behnaz Kanani

LONDON, United Kingdom — Behnaz Kanani is the name to know for buyers in search of a shoe designer with an age-old emphasis on craftsmanship paired with a modern eye. This month, our BoF logo showcases her aesthetic which mixes contrasting colours, exotic skins, and luxe leathers in immaculately-constructed shoes that are designed to catch a bit of attention.

After graduating from Cordwainers College in London in 1997, Kanani set her sights on Italy’s traditional shoe industry at Bruno Magli in Bologna to get the kind of old-world training that money can’t buy. With that technical foundation in place, she flexed her design muscle working with Sandra Choi, Creative Director at Jimmy Choo, just as the brand was starting to take off and reach uber-hot status. Then, in 2006, with brother and business partner Reza by her side, she launched her own label and has experienced promising success in the first few years of her business.

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Sophie Theallet

NEW YORK, United States — New York fashion is said to strike a balance between commerce and creativity. With few exceptions, New York designers tend to prioritise practical concerns like wearability over more frivolous concerns like the so-called wow factor. On the surface, this seems like a sound business strategy. But when designers focus too much on the practical and are obsessed with being on-trend or with what their peers are doing, everything ends up looking, well, kind of the same.

Sophie Theallet, the French-born American designer based in New York, does not have this problem. Theallet creates clothes with a distinctive mix of sophisticated wearability and refreshingly untrendy luxury. Unlike other designers who look for aesthetic inspiration from visual archetypes or vintage clothes, Theallet, who claims to not have a specific muse, designs with a more soulful, introspective process.

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Justin Giunta

NEW YORK, United States — For the month of June 2009, The Spotlight is on Justin Giunta, of Subversive Jewelry.

I first met Justin in the throes of a chaotic New York Fashion Week in February, after he was introduced to me by Mary Gehlhar, author of one of the must-read fashion books for any emerging designer, The Fashion Designer’s Survival Guide. Mary raved about Justin’s creativity and drive, and my late afternoon tea at the Mercer Hotel with Justin only confirmed this.

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The ever-morphing Barcelona dress, courtesy of Karolina Zmarlak

NEW YORK, United States — As global economic woes continue to wear on consumer spending, some fashion and luxury companies are teetering on the brink. Blue chip brands are halting expansion plans in order to focus on survival tactics, while smaller labels with limited resources are faced with the reality of sudden annihilation. It may not seem to be the ideal time to start a new label, but New York-based womenswear designer Karolina Zmarlak remains unfazed.

“All ventures in the business of fashion are daunting because it is an industry that is constantly moving, contradictory, and revenue-challenged,” she argues. “But it would be tragic to not face the demons and complexities by attempting to ‘wait it out.’” Rather than sitting on the sidelines, Zmarlak has jumped into the fashion game with an eponymous Autumn/Winter 2009 collection of directional and versatile clothes that bravely tackles womens’ shifting perception of real fashion value.

Faced with tight personal credit, consumers want more bang for their hard-to-part-with bucks. “We have taken this deeply to heart by enabling each piece to be worn in various, truly distinct ways,” notes Zmarlak’s business partner, Jesse Keyes, adding: “Just as the Parisian woman is famously able to style the same garment in a myriad of ways with accessories, our pieces can be accessorized within their own structure.”

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