Isabel & Ruben Toledo Spring-Summer 2012

This Tuesday Isabel & Ruben Toledo came to talk to my school. For those of you who have not heard about this astonishing couple you must read and know about them. Isabel made Michelle Obama's inauguration dress and one of the reasons why she is not extremely well known is because they have never wanted to go corporate. Isabel & Ruben both came from Cuba when they were kids and met each other in Spanish class when they were 13. She  attended the  Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design where she took courses in painting & ceramics and was also an intern for Diane Vreeland at the MET for 5 years. Her babysitter taught her how to sew when she was 8. Ruben is an illustrator, painter, and sculptor. He has painted mural and illustrations for Louis Vuitton, Barneys, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, and his witty illustrations have appeared in all of the top fashion magazines and journals such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times, Paper, and many more.

They have been in the fashion industry for more than 25 years and are often described as the 2 for 1 couple. She is often known as the designer's designer. Hearing them talk was really inspiring they have come a long way and everything has occurred so organically that it's interesting to hear.Isabel does not sketch, "I think of it as fashion from the inside out," she has said. "I can describe an idea or even a feeling to Ruben, and he’ll sketch it." Isabel advised us to never throw away our work no matter how horrible we think it is because that is our personal foot print and DNA.They encourage students to follow what they love and to think outside the box and to not look into the past but to the future. "Learn the rules, so you can later break them" she said when talking about fashion. Their apartment is an artist's paradise which you can see here.

On Wednesday ,The FGI Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Isabel And Ruben Toledo presented by Vanidades followed by an amazing Fashion Show by Isabel Toledo. I got to work as a dresser for the show and it was a really fun experience. The collection showed feminine, flowing dresses in colors taken from the tropical scenery of her inspiration, the Caribbean, including the blue hues of ocean and sky. After the show was over and the press was gone I got to talk to them for a couple of minutes and they are so genuine and humble which made me love them even more. I've watched many of their interviews since then and Ruben said in one of them  that "Sincerity is always sucessful". That has really struck with me these past couple of days. 

Here are some pictures that Alejandro & I took while we had the chance. Although some models were a little rude I would have to say that our models were extremely nice. 

Note: I've been trying to change the font in the black paragraph to the purple so that it matches but I messed with the HTML codes and I keep getting an error. If anyone knows how to fix this please help!