Costello Tagliapietra (Q1901)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
American fashion house
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Costello Tagliapietra |
American fashion house |
Statements
2005
creative director
2005
creative director
Designers Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra may be best known on the runway for their expert dress-draping skills and film noir silhouettes, but off the catwalk the husband-and-husband team garner plenty of attention for their uniform personal style. Take one plaid flannel shirt, a pair of khakis, a set of suspenders, a bushy beard—and, most important, a warm smile—and you've got the C & T look.For Fall, they decided to let their personal aesthetic influence their professional one, bringing many of their signatures—save for facial hair—into the collection. They got the idea when taking long walks outdoors with their newly adopted bulldog. The color palette and the digital forest print were inspired by those strolls.Instead of plaid flannel, there was plaid printed onto a silk dress, its many folds and pleats gathered at the waist. A check was also hand-stitched onto a plum-colored shell, which was worn with thick black suspenders attached to a softly pleated satin skirt. There was a cropped, quilted vest in pine wool, and perfectly tailored workwear pants that sat high on the waist. Even the less referential looks—like a wool wrap jacket with a matching gaucho pant, or a metallic V-neck top and circle skirt—were worn with boyish oxfords or hiking boots, designed in collaboration with the Frye company. In turn, the models looked inspired, not literal. "It's not so heavy-handed," said Tagliapietra. "We didn't lose that femininity that we're known for." And that's why it worked.
12 February 2015
The Costello Tagliapietra boys were thinking a lot about the nuts and bolts of construction for Spring. Sure, they're known for their thoughtful draping, but there was more here. "We were reevaluating—and falling in love with—the way we put together clothes," said Robert Tagliapietra, who designs the collection with his partner, Jeffrey Costello, after the show. "We wanted to highlight each piece by delineating the lines." Indeed, there was noticeable attention paid to every seam, particularly at the waist. An olive silk jumpsuit, for instance, was accented with navy leather, a gold jersey dress with tonal grosgrain ribbon. The pleats on the front of a cocktail dress were made to lie flat, creating the subtlest detail. And the backs of many of the dresses—including an ombré V-neck number and a navy-plaid wrap dress—were made with jersey in contrasting colors to achieve a second-skin fit.Costello Tagliapietra's color palette was moody and romantic, inspired by Patricia Arquette's character in David Lynch'sLost Highway. The hammered petrol-blue brocade silk was particularly Lynchian. Fashioned into a strong-shouldered skirt suit, it belonged on a film noir star. But seasonal musings aside, Costello and Tagliapietra's work is always very much about the woman wearing it. All of that seaming and décolletage framing is not just for showing off technique: It's meant to make her feel beautiful.
4 September 2014
Although Costello Tagliapietra's show notes cited inspiration from sci-fi heroines, it seemed to be the Brooklyn designers' down-to-earth companions that best served the Fall 2014 collection. "It's how we see our friends wear our clothes," said Robert Tagliapietra. "Everyone always wants our sweaters. They'll wear a dress, but confiscate our cardigans by the end of the night." So the designers reimagined their own grandfatherly button-ups in forest green futuristic "fur," made by brushing the back of alpaca tweed. Those kimono-sleeved cardigans and coats—occasionally with shiny contrast piping—were layered over dresses in modern marbled prints. Some dresses undulated with the body, thanks to sinuous seams and strategically placed shirring, while others swung easily around the knees; several did both.Costello and Tagliapietra also continued their march toward separates with lots of options. Intricately draped skirts sat high on the waist, while low-slung "track pants" with gathered leather waistlines and cuffs offered cool, casual ease—and felt more in keeping with the collection than cropped tuxedo pants and nip-waisted jackets. Perhaps the designers were trying to channel feminine strength with those more structured pieces, but that feeling came across more clearly in the softer looks. If a sci-fi future includes more fabric innovation like that hairy brushed alpaca, we'll take it.
5 February 2014
"Whenever we go out, people always ask us where we got our clothes," Robert Tagliapietra said of the genesis of his and partner Jeffrey Costello's collection this season. "So we decided to feminize the pieces we make for ourselves." The duo certainly have a trademark look (they were Brooklyn lumberjacks when today's hipsters were still in high school), the rugged masculinity of which has always made a charming contrast to their soigné womenswear. This season's outing didn't move too far into masculine territory (if you're curious, the models werenotkitted out in bushy beards), but Costello Tagliapietra's personal staples—like plaid work shirts and chunky cardigans—were very much in the mix. The plaid had been blurred and printed on loose tops and semi-sheer, buttoned-up blouses, and the cardigans came slim, long, and sleeveless. Worn open and belted, they ensured that even the dressiest dresses, like the draped, bright pink, floor-length one that closed the show, were low-key.The drawback of this season's easy silhouette was that some of the pieces had an awkward fit. The designers' aim was to trace the body—not cling to it—while still creating slim lines. They succeeded in creating simple, lovely shapes, but a few of the looks, like a crinkle-treated cotton dress with a wrap skirt, were too ungainly to flatter. But ultimately, Costello and Tagliapietra (obvious proponents of uniform dressing) created a neat body of separates for well-dressed women to throw on and take their kids to the park—they even provided carabiners for your keys. The collection would also work just as nicely at dinner in, say, the backyard of someone's brownstone. Nothing wrong with that. Leather shoes and handbags, made in Greece, were a new addition for the label, and they provided a touch of structure amid the slouch.
4 September 2013
There's no kind of collection harder for a reviewer to grapple with than one that's predictably competent. Today's Costello Tagliapietra was a classic of the genre: There's just not much to say about a group of expertly draped silk and jersey dresses except, well,thathappened…again. Everyone knows that Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra are very, very good at designing soigné, day-to-night draped dresses, and this season, that's what they did. Again. Some of the draped dresses were obi-belted; some of them came in watercolor prints that didn't quite gel. Some of them were in different colors, back-to-front. A few at the close of the show were done in satin, and consequently felt dressier and had a bit more structure.C'est tout.The more interesting stuff to reckon with, here, were the looks outside of Costello and Tagliapietra's usual ken. There was an unexpected current of quirky granny chic in this collection, evidenced in cozy hand-knit sweaters and modest alpaca skirts and trousers; meanwhile, the prints that came off as a bit much in the dresses were used to nice, eccentric effect in a couple of layered button-downs. Costello and Tagliapietra are longtime residents of Brooklyn; perhaps now they've picked up an affection for the borough's dowdy-hipster aesthetic. Whatever the influence, it wasn't fully absorbed, though it was refreshing to see some experimentation on this runway.
6 February 2013
According to Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra, the collection they showed this afternoon was all about love. But it was also—and this seems a strange thing to say about a show that emphasized beige dresses—very much about color. The strongest single idea offered here was to treat abstract prints as blocks of mottled color, and play the tones against each other. That idea was employed in several winning looks, in particular a body-skimming jumpsuit and an insouciantly sexy draped halter dress. Elsewhere, Costello and Tagliapietra continued to explore the possibilities of the AirDye technology they've taken to heart; the process spreads a super-thin coat of dye on one side of a fabric, and Costello and Tagliapietra use it to mimic the effect of contrast double-facing. A Botticelli-inspired halter dress showed off the trick best, with a dense drape of neon coral at the collar perking up the pale lavender below.And then, on the other hand, there was non-color: those beige dresses. Perhaps the riskiest move a designer can make is to risk being boring, and here Costello and Tagliapietra faced the challenge with aplomb. There's not much to say about these dresses, except that they were expertly draped—which pretty much goes without saying when it comes to these designers—and that the color achieved what may well be the Platonic ideal of "neutral." They were also very good—discreet, yet a little suggestive in the way they hugged the body; kimono belted or sweetly tied with a bow—and will be catnip for the woman with a yen for feminine simplicity.
5 September 2012
Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra's dresses always have movement, but the designers' Fall collection gave you a particular sense of it, as if everything were somehow floating upward. Backstage, their inspiration made logical, if abstract, sense. "It started with the prints," Tagliapietra explained. "Jeffrey painted them and they looked likeBeetlejuice, quirky and almost spooky. So we started thinking about the idea of hauntings, that feeling of something spectral."Luckily it was only a feeling—these were still dresses grounded in the practicalities of the physical world. As ever, Costello and Tagliapietra's skills were apparent in the graceful tucks and twists of fabric they cut into their patterns. What felt new was a fun and slightly outré energy in some of the dresses in smudgy or swirling prints and rich silks with draped volumes cinched at the waist. You could almost see shades of eighties Emanuel Ungaro, though streamlined for today's girl. More Ivanka than Ivana.The pair continued their nod to eco-consciousness with the AirDye technology they've been employing for a few seasons. This time around they used a dual process to create light single-ply fabrics with contrasting colors on either side, seen to best effect in a standout silvery-gray silk dress that offered up glints of aqua in its twisted-and-tied waist. When it came to the small selection of eveningwear, the lightness seemed to sag, which was mostly the result of low-slung ruching and side drapes that pulled downward. But it was a minor hiccup in a strong collection.
8 February 2012
City flowers. It's how Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra—with a little poetry from Georgia O'Keeffe, cited in their show notes—have viewed their dresses since day one. The pair is on the side of evolution over revolution, and they found themselves revisiting core values like romanticism and femininity.Both themes were present in the classic dresses here—some in jersey, others in satin—whether expertly bow-tied and bloused or sewn into twisty gathers at the waist. The difference was in the details of an asymmetrical keyhole cutout or a new silhouette that creates chic, full, soft drapes around the hips. This season's crop of prints were also fresh, including a couple of smudgy, painterly florals that looked like peeling walls, and another with stenciled leaves, particularly lovely on a bell-sleeved forties-inspired number. Costello Tagliapietra has a deceptively simple formula that adds up to pretty, not precious.
8 September 2011
Put it down to the spick-and-span nature of their work, but when Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra get nostalgic, it doesn't hit you over the head. Still, for Fall they were feeling both the nineties—the pivotal moment when they met and began their fashion lives—and the early seventies, triggered by a viewing of Robert Altman's3 Women."We wanted to touch on that freedom of how people dressed to express themselves," Tagliapietra said before the show. To them, that meant movement, which they achieved by injecting swish and flare into their bow-belted dresses, satin skirts, and even a glam draped gown. Their draping, too, had a sort of kinetic energy, swooping across the body and around the models' necks.The most overt nod to the nineties was an ombré Matsuda-esque stripe, which the designers printed on sequins in their first stab at embellishment. But when the fabric was cut into little button-downs and narrow pants, these lacked the ease that this duo's clientele surely prizes.Much of the story here was in unadulterated doses of color, like the beautiful poppy red that opened the show. The standout was one they named chalkboard green, which was really a deep, rich, forest-y hue. It induced a knee-jerk want-it reaction in a pair of chic, fluttery silk dresses and a poor-boy knit paired with a matching skirt. Those knits, by the way, are also a new addition chez Costello Tagliapietra, and a very welcome one at that. The tall and perfect should consider one of the fabulous sweater column gowns that closed the show. For the rest of us, there were more than enough pretty dresses in this well-executed collection to go around.
10 February 2011
"There's a place for jeans and T-shirts, but I remember when people used to take pride in how they put themselves together when they went to work. The question is, how do we do dresses for day?" That was Robert Tagliapietra at his Brooklyn studio last week, discussing the puzzle he and his co-designer, Jeffrey Costello, had tried to solve for Spring. The answer wasn't as obvious at it might sound. Of course, women certainly do want to look like a million bucks on a daily basis, but they also want to be able to leap into a taxi or walk into a meeting without feeling silly. After all, we're not in the era of Joan Holloway.As it turned out, the duo's resolution of this fashion conundrum made for one of their best collections to date. This was by no means a departure from, but rather a quieting and refinement of what they do best. The excitement came from an array of neutral-hued dresses with a sense of anonymity, a blank-slate quality that still managed to be both interesting and quite chic. Excess and trickery were stripped away, and the focus put on details: the gentle drapes on the hips of a skirt, or a sleeve length you don't often see. There was modernity in the subtle marrying of casual and elegant, like a drop-waisted jersey dress falling off the shoulder just so. A sculpted charcoal top and slim midi skirt had a polished appearance, but could have been made out of sweatshirting; another sculpted top, with shoulders pinched up into points like little cat ears, was a small misstep. The final grouping of looks in a smudgy, painterly print looked like they were trying too hard, too—so strong was the designers' case for plain and pretty.
9 September 2010
A recent trip to Japan set Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra off: "We started thinking about traditional Japanese fashion, and early-eighties Comme, and Yohji, which we love," Tagliapietra said backstage the night of the show.The duo are self-described math nerds who can spend hours poring meticulously over their patterns—they're not exactly known as avant-garde—but an admission of being in a Kawakubo state of mind is always a sure tip-off that experimentation will follow. Sure enough, you could see a more sculptural and off-kilter quality to their signature draping, even if it didn't hit you in the face. Spiraled and compressed folds added substance and weight to one look's waist, while on another the pleats seemed almost spontaneously draped around the body. The designers tried out an interesting new technique on their signature jersey dresses and tops, anchoring them with woven silk backs, usually in a contrasting color plucked from their beautiful palette of desert-sunset hues. But for all that, there was actually a gorgeous simplicity to this collection. It marked both a return to their founding vision and a step forward.
11 February 2010
Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra had no esoteric references to pull out of their (plaid-clad) sleeves this season. Gone, too, were the styling gimmicks. For Spring, they said, they were interested in simply exploring "beauty for beauty's sake."The boys went back to their roots with a marked focus on lovely drapes and lush color—with an added dollop of Earth-friendly fashion technology this time around. For their sunset and lake prints, based on photographs Costello shot digitally in Brooklyn, they worked with a company called AirDye that has developed a way to print fabric without using water. Surface interest was also provided by a number of dresses with contrasting backs that played matte against shine or print against solid. There were alsotrèssubtle Swarovski details, a few mumsy elastic belts, and accomplished origami folding. The first exit featured satin-organza embroidery that magically transformed a dress into an orchid, which, in turn, made model Ali Stephens look like a (simply beautiful) walking flower.
10 September 2009
Instead of lying low and playing it safe, Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra decided to go for "all-out Irving Penn" glamour. "We were sick of hearing about the recession," Tagliapietra explained.A dress with striking angular jodhpur sleeves was the most Pennsian in a lineup that was more shapely and sculpted than ever before. The duo's virtuosity was evident in beautifully crafted cowls, asymmetric pleats, and hand pleats that embellished a collection almost entirely executed in a jersey fabric that Costello and Tagliapietra had developed with their sponsor, Ultrasuede. It wasn't the first time, though, that the designers allowed showtime shenanigans—dour makeup, an aggressive pace, and hands-on-hips posturing, in this case—to distract from the compelling drama of the clothes.
12 February 2009
They might be fashion's favorite cuddly, flannel-wearing bears, but this Spring Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra showed some claw. Their tough-on-the-surface collection surprisingly didn't include one inch of jersey, the drapey material on which they have built their reputation. "We never meant for jersey to be our full brand identity," Tagliapietra protested. So what is at the brand's core, then? Feminine clothes, they said, that are "body conscious—not in an Alaïa way, but one which caresses the body."The best pieces were made of washed silk charmeuse or georgette in exciting brights and color combinations the two haven't used before. (The ultrasuede pieces, particularly an ill-conceived and ill-fitting long skirt, were less convincing.) As they tweak their label's image, Costello and Tagliapietra said, they wanted to bring more of their own personas into the mix. They pulled this off with humor and much (nonflannel) plaid, which they whipped into sexy dresses, and by sending each of the models out with an initialed anchor tattoo inspired by the partners' own.By contrast, their other stated inspirations—the seamy side of the seventies, sex clubs,Scorpio Rising,The Night Porter—seemed to be superimposed on the collection via heavy-handed styling: the leather cap, the suspenders, the Vaselined faces. OK, we get it. Harmless role-play? Sure, but it distracted attention from the clothes, which deserved the lion's (or in this case bear's) share of it.
6 September 2008
Hoping to showcase "a different side" of their talent, Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra dreamt up individual characters for each of their models, engaged the MisShapes to do the music, and, after deciding on the waist as the anchor of their silhouette, set about playing with sleeves and hem lengths.The haunting fairy-tale illustrations of Arthur Rackham and Gustaf Tenggren were the creative kickoff point. Rackham's and Tenggren's long-locked nymphs, "oddly enough," the designers said, "lead us to forties film noir." (Well, both genres are dark and moody, and they do both feature sylphlike damsels in distress.) The rigor of that decade's lines, already a touchstone this season, was a good match for Costello and Tagliapietra's draping skills, as evidenced by the slim cocktail dresses, especially a beautiful gathered teal one worn by Danielle Zinaich and a gray satin number with "claw" insets. They also included more silk (some sand-washed four times to give it a sueded hand) amid their signature jersey, and successfully added prints, notably a trompe l'oeil fur and a Rorschach floral.It was when the well-liked duo went against their own grain and tried to go uncharacteristically casual that missteps were made. For instance, when a silky wrap was awkwardly layered over a turtleneck. Styling, in other words, is where they slightly lost the plot.
1 February 2008
You don't come here expecting the reinvention of the wheel. You come to see how Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra have tweaked their template.This season, the Brooklyn boys placed less emphasis on seventies swagger and went for something more soigné. The collection again clearly referenced the past—there was a taste of thirties languor, and the hair could have been taken from an Edwardian china doll—but it wasn't mired in it.Backstage after the show, the designers talked about the specifics of their rather esoteric inspirations: the "reductive" portraits of the Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck and twenties fashion illustrations by the Viennese artist Ernst Dryden. "We concentrate on subtleties, and build upon our design vocabulary," Costello said. "We're doing something that's personal to us." The elegance of Dryden, to give a nuanced example, could be picked out in a black lace dress tied low on the waist, and in a dove-colored number with a pink decorative swag at the hip. For designers who've made their name working with jersey (so notoriously hard to master), it's all about finesse.
6 September 2007
The boys from Brooklyn are playing in the big leagues.Showing for the first time in the Bryant Park tents, Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra did ingenious variations on their favorite medium, jersey. Everything was a bitoff, but in a good way. How did they do it? By, in their words, ¿controlling the pleating and cowling in one area.¿ And so a dress had a ¿cowl¿ drape over just one hip, and skirts were likewise skewed asymmetrically. (They even somehow managed to do a collar that appeared upside-down, i.e., pointing up, without it looking weird.) Mixed in among the more sober dresses in gray, brick, and ink were a few slinkier numbers, like a long black two-piece for the Halstonette of 2007.The duo also did pants, skirts, and jackets (one that belled out boldly over the hips) in luxe tapestry material and other French weaves. A red one¿shouldered dress with a streamer ¿tie¿ wrapped around the neck and the bodice was especially smart. Less successful were the experiments with crystal embellishment.By the end of the show, the boys had proved they can pitch a few curveballs, and that they deserve their spot in the rotation.
8 February 2007
Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra are anachronisms— witness the lumberjack shirts, the suspenders, the beards, and, since May, the matching "JCRT" anchor tattoos. But it goes beyond their appearance. The Brooklyn-based duo—CFDA/VogueFashion Fund finalists for the second year in a row—are among the few contemporary designers who, whither the wind blows, remain true to their vision. Trapeze dresses? You won't find them on this runway. Instead, they reworked their signature slim draped jersey dresses in earthy Aubrey Beardsley tones. And in a subtle nod to Halston's Studio 54 days, added a few sexy one-shoulder looks to the mix of more demure wrap, Empire, and cinched waist styles.New for spring were the embroideries. Gold bugle beads traced the neckline of a tomato red number with geometric precision, and a smattering of pearls decorated the bodice of a white gold frock, as well as a ribbon necklace worn with a purple V-neck dress. They also experimented with luxe wovens like griege and metallic moiré, sewing them into a short-sleeve jacket, narrow pants, or a standup-collar coat gathered at the waist. All three pieces were nice enough additions—timeless and refined—but it's when they work with the fluid jersey that these designers really shine. It may not make for the splashiest runway experience of the week, but it's nice to see a label playing to its strengths.
9 September 2006
You could look at Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra's new collection and say that not much has changed. But that's probably just fine with the New York duo's devoted fans. They'd prefer to keep Costello Tagliapietra's skimmy jersey dresses a secret, to ooh and ahh among themselves about a frill of pleats at mid-thigh, a new shirred neckline, or the tiny buttons that render a provocative slit demure.However, a growing clique of fashion insiders does not a business make. So in addition to elevating the quiet charms of their fall silhouettes—wraps, halter gowns, and sheaths, mostly—with exquisite lace linings, the designers are continuing to add more sportswear separates to their mix. Sturdy moleskin trousers set off a delicate David Hockney-blue sleeveless top very well, but a coat cut from the same fabric that hit at the hips looked boxy; the knee-length version had more swing.Just when you might have expected them to expand on these ideas, a fox jacket and a raccoon capelet ended Costello Tagliapietra's small collection. If they're committed to growing bigger, the designers will have to spend less time on such fluff, luxe though it may be, and focus more on pieces like the great-looking gathered-shoulder top and slim skirt that were almost obscured by a fur muff.
6 February 2006
For spring, Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra produced a striking collection of their signature draped jersey dresses, which earned them aVogue/CFDA Fashion Fund nomination this year, and much more. The invitation to the show offered clues as to what was to come; it featured a blurred detail of Pre-Raphaelite painter J.W. Waterhouse'sPsyche Entering Cupid's Garden,a soft yet confident assertion of femininity.With quiet assuredness, the duo introduced crinkled silks, crepes, and georgettes into their typically all-jersey world and showed a greater variety of separates. Shawl- and draped-collar jackets, some with contrasting Petersham ribbon trim, were paired with slim trousers with slot seams and pleated skirts. All of it was handled with their typical skill, but as welcome as these additions were, the dresses and gowns were still the standouts. Pale "watercolors," painterly shades of clay, beige, gray-green, bone, yellow, and lavender, unified the collection. Individual detailing was what set them apart, like shirring at the shoulder bone, a bow tied at the back, a keyhole slit, or a cinch. The gowns left as much of an impression going as they did coming, since each one had rich detail in the back. The most dramatic of the lot had ribbon straps that plunged into a V and met a petal of fabric at the waist.What was most remarkable about the show was that it escaped both the Grecian undertones typically attached to draped jersey pieces and the overt references to Jean Muir or Madame Grès. Instead of floating like deities, the models swished by with the assurance of mortal goddesses in the twenty-first century.
10 September 2005
Affectionately known as "the jersey boys," Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra have no ties to the Garden State. What they do have is a devotion to jersey fabrics, which they celebrated in an accomplished, 24-piece all-knit collection.While their spring show featured dresses almost exclusively, the duo expanded their reach with their sophomore collection, showing pants, jackets (like a short clay-colored model), dramatic capes, and belted coats that wrapped around the body like an embrace. As for the dresses, they were expertly executed: The designers achieved soft, supple, drapey effects, as well as more structured ones, making a famously clingy fabric practical and wearable. Floaty jersey lace was worked into swingy skirts, while heavier pieces, in a muted palette of soft clay, loden, and oatmeal, had surprising, sporty pockets. The finale, a red wrap-top floor-length gown with pockets above the high waist, was an absolute valentine.
10 February 2005