Oh, designing for real women… It seems to be a misunderstanding that fashion designers do not design for “real women.” Real women are our inspiration and starting point.  I listen to what they want, what they like, and design pieces based around their city lifestyles.

Perhaps it is because the industry pushes images of the rail-thin air-brushed models in fashion magazines and on the runway. Those fantasy images are meant to inspire, not necessarily to be replicated in real life, and the press always chooses to promote the most outlandish designs from any designer’s collection.  Those brand-driven pieces rarely make it into stores and, consequently, are not expected to be worn by the public. What people actually buy in designer retailers is very different (conservative, even boring) compared to what we see on the runway. Yet even with my craziest designs, I am always thinking about the real woman. 

I often describe the woman I design for as a globe-hopping arbiter of taste and culture. She’s chic; she’s glam; she  knows exactly what she wants and is not afraid to pursue it. She travels the world for work and for play and needs a versatile wardrobe to match her fast-paced lifestyle.

Sunny

Oksana

My daily sources of inspiration are my friends Sunny and Oksana who have exquisite style and taste. I am always asking them about their preferences and how they like their clothes to fit. Sunny is a painter and always wears 4-inch heels at night. Oksana has a baby, speaks Russian, and used to work at Louis Vuitton. They are both very chic. 

Even my wildest vision for an ideal woman/muse exists in the real world. Her name is Pearl Lam, and she is an amazing art dealer living between Hong Kong, Shanghai, and London. She is spearheading the new wave of art/design collecting in China and is a visionary in her field. She adores fashion and is a couture client of Alaia, Givenchy, and Gaultier. I met her when she invited me to her home for dinner in January, and I was totally smitten! 

We are realizing during the current recession that there is a disconnect between what fashion brands feed into the market and what consumers actually want to buy. Karl Lagerfeld mentioned (during last fall’s FGI Night of Stars) that fashion is what we see women wearing on the street — not what we see on red-carpet celebrities.  We should be catering to these real women on the street, and we designers already know this.

That’s why I’m a bit annoyed by the “Real Woman” challenge from this week’s The Fashion Show. It’s as if saying we fashion designers don’t design for real women — we do!!  It just happens that one designer may design couture suits for Upper East Side ladies who lunch while another designs cheap mix-and-match pieces for Forever 21. One designer could not possibly cater to every body shape and personality out there. There are so many different kind of designers out there, and consumers must also do their part in researching which ones fit their shape the best.