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I’m surprised to see that there isn’t much information readily available about Ozwald Boateng on the net. That is partly the reason for the title I chose.

Ozwald Boateng a British Menswear designer who is well known in London, but has yet to catch on as a mainstream designer in the US even with efforts of the House of Boateng an eight-episode documentary series that followed him as he tried to open a flagship store in the United States and aired on the Sundance Channel.

Born in 1968 a modern day bespoke tailor born in Ghana and brought up in the streets of London. Son of Kweshi (a school teacher) and mother Mary Boateng. Ozwald began tailoring at the age of 16 selling his mothers designs.

To be honest Donatella Versace would most likely not be as wide known if not for her brother Gianni Versace being gunned down in 1997 in front of his Miami Mansion. A few years after Donatella begin to bring the Versace label into its current prominence in the fashion industry.

Donatella was born in the Italian town of Reggio di Calabria in 1955 the youngest of four children. Her mother a dressmaker to the aristocracy and her father a businessman.(Personal financier)

Donatella followed her brother Gianni who was ten years older to pursue knitwear design in Florence, Italy. She planned to work with her brother as Public Relations, but became more of a muse and valuable for critiquing his work as a designer. Donatella played an important role in the Versace empire coming up with many ideas that has brought it from a fledgling fashion collection in the Eighties. She is responsible for the idea to use celebrities or well known models for the catwalk shows knowing it would bring more press coverage to Gianni Versace’s events.

French fashion designer Christian Dior was born on January 21, 1905 in Granville Manche. Dior attended Ecole des Sciences Politiques from 1920-1925 at the submission of his parents hoping young Christian would follow in his family footsteps and become a diplomat, but he had other plans in mind.

He later served the obligatory two years in the French Army after graduating. In 1928 he opened a small art gallery selling the works of Picasso, and many other prominent artist of that time. He would later be forced to close the art gallery due to his own illness (contracted with tuberculosis) his mother dying of cancer and his father’s business going belly up and declaring bankruptcy. During this time in life is where Christian discovered his love for fashion designing and started working as a assistant designer and fashion illustrator.

Betsey Johnson is a very decorated fashion designer and her garments reflect her personality- creative, feminine, hippie inspired and very whimsical.

Her signature is a cartwheel at the end of all of her fashion shows…enough said right?

After high school, Johnson studied at the Pratt Institute and then later graduated from Syracuse University where she was a member of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority. Betsey Johnson started her fashion career in the 1960’s as a winner for Mademoiselle (Influential Womens Magazine later acquired by Conde Nast Publications) Guest Editor contest. Less than a year later Betsey landed a gig as one of the top designers for Paraphernalia, which was a clothing boutique that showcased some of London’s up and coming young designers.

Betsey played her part in what is now called the “Youth Quake” (fashion, culture, and musical movement mostly in London) which was inspired by the movement of Andy Warhol. In 1969 Betsey opened her first boutique named Betsey Bunki Nini and was simultaneously offered a job at Alvin Dunskin in San Francisco, until later becoming the Creative Director at Alley Cat in 1971 less than two years later. In 1972, along with Halston, Betsey won the coveted Coty Award becoming the youngest designer to ever receive the honor.

Marc Jacobs was born in New York City April 9, 1963. Marc Jacobs always had fashion in his heart considering he went to the high school of Art and Design instead of general public school like most teenagers.

Shortly after graduating from high school Marc attended Parsons School of design and this is where his career really started to take form. While attending college Marc Jacobs designed his first collection which was commissioned and sold by Barbara Weiser under the label ‘Marc Jacobs for Marc and Barbara’.

While at Parsons Marc received some of the schools highest honors including: The Perry Ellis Gold Thimble award, The Chester Weinberg Gold Thimble, and Design Student of the Year. Following his studies at the Parsons School of Design, he became prominent on the fashion scene when he designed a “grunge” collection for Perry Ellis, leading to his immediate dismissal.

Donna Karan founded her company in 1984 (My year of birth ) with her late husband Stephan Weiss. Her mantra being to “Design modern clothes, For modern people” Donna created a head to toe concept based on seven “easy-pieces” that mixed and match into a day-evening concept that was innovative at that present time.

Her fashion empire consisted of Donna Karan New York and the ready to wear counterpart DKNY. After the launch of DKNY in 1989 Donna Karan took both brands to another level releasing products covering all aspects truly solidifying them as lifestyle brands. DKNY and Donna Karan New York both offer products ranging from hosiery, eyewear, intimate apparel, and in DKNY’s case, jeans, juniors, active, city, kids and baby clothing.

With over 80 DKNY and Donna Karan New York stores worldwide and now headed by the likes of Luxury European Distributor LVMH ($643 million purchase price) Donna Karan International is going to be compared to the likes of Ralph Lauren Polo with her longevity and past success in the fashion industry.

Born?in Brooklyn-New York in 1980 and first got his first educated experience in fashion through the St. Ann’s School For Arts and then later attended Parsons?School of Design in New York.?

He dropped out of school to pursue his designer career which later proved to be a great move on his behalf. At only sixteen Zac interned at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Design Institute under the?wings of Richard Martin.?

Many of you may not be familiar with Zac Posen, but you have seen his clothing on many of celebrity starlets.

Matter of fact I wasn’t as familiar with him until I read about Sean “P.Diddy” Combs invested in Zac’s company for a 50% stake in the designers’ line in 2004…. hey! I knew then he had to be somebody…lol

For Zac Posen the sweet taste of success wasn’t long after he launched his collection in 2001 that was circulated in the best of high-fashion retailers including a joint-venture with 7 Of All Mankind denim jeans manufacturers. The limited edition jeans were so popular customers were limited to one pair per style and they were sold only at Neiman Marcus.

I was just reading through the forum and ran into a post about women’s fashion that was in full discussion, which if you haven’t joined you should definitely sign up for FREE today.

The topic was the lack of good female (urban) clothing lines, which I agree to a certain extent…because again it depends on which category of clothing you are referring to also. Because their are some better quality brands that have been thriving for years and you can’t deny their talent.

Then I ran across the clothing line Joey Tierney and from the description (Rock style with a sophisticated look) the member made it sounded like it could be worth the time to take a second look.

On her site she describes her clothing line which is self named Joey Tierney rock meets high society. The clothing line wasn’t her first apparel endeavor, because she released a skirt line along with IMG Mercedes Benz called Joey and T. Joey was credited the “Darling of Fashion Week” by The Daily and gained critical acclaim in the fashion industry and also tour stylist for celebrities including Britney Spears.

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Yeah the headline title was before the Calvin Klein we knew today that record was set back in the early 70’s. Calvin used a provocative advertisement by Brooke Shields that read “Nothing Comes Between Me and My Calvins”.

With the financial ($10,000)?help of his childhood friend Barry Schwartz Calvin Klein set out to develop what was then a coat shop in the York hotel Calvin Klein Ltd. From their Calvin Klein had the kind of success you would only think to see in fairy tales. Retailer Bonwit Teller sent a merchandiser out to his showroom and within a week purchased $50,000 worth of merchandise from Calvin’s clothing company, also displaying eight of their samples in their window…talk about time and luck.

From their Calvin went own to develop his signature sportswear line and went on to later design the tight fitting jeans that would soon sell 40,000 pairs per week simultaneously launching him into fashion designer/celebrity status in the apparel design industry. Calvin Klein?was also the first designer to receive outstanding design in men’s and women’s wear from CFDA award show in?the same?year.

Giorgio Armani is the creator behind many brands including Armani, Armani Exchange, Giorgio Armani, and Armani Junior the list goes on. Giorgio Armani was born in Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna on July 11, 1934. Before venturing out on his own Giorgio worked for a well-known design house Nino Cerruti. Giorgio Armani began a freelance design business in 1970 and established his first menswear label in 1974 Giorgio Armani S.p.A. . A year later his clothing label grown into offering men’s and women’s wear in a partnership with his friend that encouraged him to start the freelance design business. His name was Sergio Galeotti who died in 1984, but played an important role in the development of the Armani brand.

The biggest market for the Armani brand is the United States where it is available for purchase in over 12,000 locations alone. In 1983 Giorgio Armani was honored with the International Award at the CFDA. In 2001 Forbes named him the world most successful Italian designer with an estimated net worth of over $1.7 billion and was updated in 2006 at over $4.1 billion. From the looks of it his net worth increased by over $3 billion he must have sold his stake in his fashion house.

Mychael Knight?is mostly known for being?one of the finalist on the hit television show Project Runway. Born in Nuremberg, Germany Mychael Knight later moved to Atlanta, Georgia where he would eventually attend Georgia Southern University for a Bachelors in apparel design and merchandising.

Many know him from the third season of the Bravo hit show, but he actually tried out for the second and wasn’t chosen to participate in the Project Runway show. Even though he didn’t win he was chosen as?the viewers favorite by over 10 million?voters, which gave him publicity and? a check in the amount of?$10,000.?His work prior to entering Project Runway had been seen in Upscale and Black Men’s Magazine. Celebrities throughout the entertainment industry have been seen in Mychael Knight custom pieces. Other than his new clothing line MIKA? and a signature fragrance in the works “EVERYTHING” lies ahead for Mychael Knight.

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Well first let me introduce this new category Fashion Designer Profile, which will include the bio of prominent fashion designers or clothing company owners. With these profiles I will try to include any information that I know or have found about these fashion designers or brand owners. From what school they attended to any formal training and there career path as a clothing designer (Anything to do with there companies or fashion career). How will this help you? Because it is good to know were you stand in the industry (In terms of training, or education, surroundings) and the background of other successful designers in the industry and in the process you will be educated on successes and failures of other designer entrepreneurs.

Today’s profile is about Tony Shellman you might not know the name, because he isn’t a famous rapper or celebrity turned fashion designer/clothing company owner, but has an extensive background in the fashion industry as an entrepreneur behind three successful brands.