Designer of the week is Richard Chai. Born in Westchester County, New York, Chai was raised in a very artistic family. At a young age, his mother would take him and the other children to museums, opera and other places where they could be influenced by art. This influenced his artistic side and began his interest in Fashion. This also was the reason he started his career in fashion at an early age with a prestigious internship at Geoffrey Beene as an undergraduate at Parsons School of Design. After graduating Parsons School of Design, Chai continued his studies in Paris and worked as a sketcher at Lanvin. This did not last.
Chai moved back after one year to New York where he became an assistant designer at Armani Exchange to joining Donna Karan as a designer for the DKNY and D collections. In a short amount of time, Chai had bounced from one brand to another. From 1998 to 2001, Chai became the Design Director for Marc Jacobs men's and women's collections. Towards the end of 2001, he was appointed Creative Director of all TSE brands. This actually marked the first time a single person handled all the brands.
Networking and getting the opportunity to work along side some of the most influential designers in the world, Chai started to develop a keen eye for detail, focusing on architectural design elements, and the importance of the construction on clothes. By 2004, Chai established his own company and his collection was well received. Chai was nominated for the Fashion Group International Rising Star Award in 2005 and Samsung Fashion & Design Fund award for emerging Korean designers by 2006.
Taking the architectural approach to menswear as well as womenswear, Chai continued to turn heads through the years in each show.
What I love most is how whimsical his collections are. The construction is endless and each pieces looks like it can be mixed with another which makes the collection versatile. Chai puts on a story with every show he is in. It will be interesting to see what he comes up next especially since many designers show a huge step to being fashion forward. I have confidence in Chai that he will be up there with everyone else but what I'm more curious about is what will he create to be a head of others. Rights go to:
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