Cuban born designer Isabel Toledo's career may have recently been condensed into a single moment thanks to the now infamous lemongrass colored sheath dress and matching coat Michelle Obama wore to the inauguration but Toledo doesn't seem to mind one bit. The moment she found out Obama was wearing her design (which by the way was at the same time the rest of us found out) "was amazing and left me speechless," says Toledo.
Now there is more fuel for Toledo mania thanks to the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology's mid-career retrospective on the designer's work, Isabel Toledo: Fashion From the Inside Out. The exhibit, which runs from June 17th to September 26th, covers the designer's rocky but acclaimed twenty-five year career including her three-season stint as a designer for Anne Klein. 70 of Toledo's pieces, her husband and collaborator Ruben Toledo's sketches of her clothes, and of course the inauguration dress lent to the exhibit by Michelle Obama (which might as well just be called "the dress" at this point) are all on view.
Despite all of the recent attention to the Toledos, (who have worked closely together since they met at high school in New Jersey,) the couple doesn't use a publicist or own a cell phone between them. And don't think the exhibit was planned just because of the Obama dress. Ruben says, "This show was planned a year ago and then the inauguration moment happened, so that was just a blessing from above. We didn't even know we would have that, so we had to add in all of this last minute stuff just because of it. It's the cherry on the cake right?"
Dr.Valerie Steele who curated the exhibit says, "Isabel is a really unique designer because she doesn't sketch, she doesn't follow trends. She just kind of sees an image in 3D in her own mind and starts to translate it from the flat 2D pattern into the three dimensional dress. It's always very original which is why I think so many designers admire her work. She's been a real designers' designer."
Considering that Betsey Johnson, Yigal Azrouël, Tracy Reese and Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa all made the rounds at the exhibit's opening party it seems Isabel really does have some designer fans.
Speaking about the retrospective husband Ruben says, "This exhibit is really like memory lane because I have memories around each of the dresses [in the exhibit]. Some of them are named after the people they were made for. There is a Debi Mazar dress, a Sigourney Weaver dress, a Raquel Welch dress and a Jennifer Lopez dress, so it's incredible. I go right back to those moments."
Isabel adds, "All of the moments in my career have been pivotal. Every year. Being able to survive as an independent designer. It's a business for me so every moment counts."
