Toledo, Isabel, 1960-2019 (1960-2019)

Dates

• Existence: 1960-2019

Biography

Isabel Toledo is a Cuban fashion designer. She and her husband Ruben Toledo work closely together in several fields of fashion. Isabel is a fashion designer known for producing clothing that combines sophisticated simplicity and meticulous craftsmanship.

Born in Cuba in 1960, Isabel learned to sew as a child, when she was fascinated by her grandmother’s sewing machine. She describes Cuban culture as one in which mastering the techniques of fine sewing was an admired accomplishment for women. When she first began designing clothes, she adopted the technique, associated with such great couturieres as Mmes. Grès and Madeleine Vionnet, of working directly with fabric by draping and cutting, designing in three dimensions. Like Claire McCardell, she works in simple materials such as denim, cotton jersey, and cotton flannel. She describes her garments as forward-looking and optimistic.

Isabel showed her first collection in 1985 and was immediately acclaimed as an important new talent on the New York fashion scene. Her clothes—architectural, slightly severe, with black or shades of gray dominating her palette—became highly prized by wearers of fashion-forward, “downtown” styles and were praised in such publications as the Village Voice, Paper, and Visionaire. Acquiring a cult following in New York, Paris, and Tokyo, Isabel nevertheless has had difficulties finding sufficient long-term financial backing to break out of niche markets to reach more widespread recognition.

The Toledos had a major exhibition, Toledo/Toledo: A Marriage of Art and Fashion, at the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in 1999. Ruben’s illustrations reached a wide audience in his witty book, Style Dictionary (1997). In one of his iconoclastic fashion illustrations, entitled “Fashion history goes on strike,” Ruben portrayed dresses from the past, from New Look to Mod, parading across the page in a militant demonstration, carrying placards reading, “Let us rest in peace! No more retro! Look forward, not backward!” Both of the Toledos remain on the cutting edge of style, moving fashion forward.

First Lady Michelle Obama wore a lemongrass-yellow Isabel Toledo dress and coat ensemble for her husband’s inauguration as president in January 2009. This world-famous ensemble was later featured in a major exhibition, “Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out,” at the Museum at FIT in New York in the summer of 2009. It was subsequently acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, for its popular display of First Ladies’ Dresses.

Found in 3 Collections and/or Records: