Designer two

Rodarte

Two sisters called Kate and Laura Mulleavy created Rodarte in 2005. Both sisters attended U.C. Berkeley in California, Kate studied art History focused on the 19^th and 20^th century and Laura decided to study literature and the modern novel. They graduated with degrees in 2001. After finishing university both girl returned home, where they form their brand Rodarte. Their brand name “Rodarte” is of Spanish origin and was taken from their mother’s maiden name.

The Brand is now stock worldwide by many stores including Barneys NY, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Beams, Harvey Nichols, Dover Street market and many more high end stores. The Brand has a very big celebrity clientele, including Tilda Swinton, Emma Watson, Chloë Sevigny, Cate Blanchett, Keira Knightley, and Dita von Teese. At the Academy Awards both Reese Witherspoon and Natalie Portman were dressed in Rodarte. Another celebrity fan and friend, is actress Kirsten Dunst, who also go along with them to the CFDA Awards in 2009. Another friend, fan, and model is musician Joanna Newsom, who is often seen wearing their designs. Another very important person has been seen wearing Rodarte and that was Michelle Obama wore Rodarte while hosting Queen Rania of Jordan in the Oval Office on April 23, 2009

The sisters have a permanent collection in the costume institute of the metropolitan museum of art and the institute of technology museum in New York. Since starting their brand in 2005 they have been nominated for many awards

· 2006 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund - Runner Up

· 2006 CFDA Swarovski Award for Womenswear – Nomination

· 2006 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Award – Won

· 2007 CFDA Swarovski Award for Womenswear – Nomination

· 2008 CFDA Swarovski Award for Womenswear - Won

· 2008 Stella Swiss Textiles Award - Won

· 2009 CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year - Won

The Mulleavy sisters won one of fashion's major monetary awards, The Swiss Textiles Award in Zurich Switzerland, worth 100,000 euros on November 13, 2008. The Brand beat other fashion designers like Jean-Pierre Braganza, Richard Nicoll and Louise Goldin to the prize. They were the very first women to win the award and the first champion’s from outside Europe to win. One of the jury for the prize included New York fashion designer Patricia Field. Just after they received their accolade, in a radio interview Kate and Laura Mulleavy said their sibling relationship is significant to their work and their success.

  

The Mulleavys were put on the cover of Women's Wear Daily after their first collection of just 10 pieces and then they had a meeting with US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.

The sisters have joined forces with Gap, and most recently Target, produced limited edition pieces.  The line is a part of GO International and was released in stores and online on December 20, 2009. Tavi Gevinson is a 13-year-old style blogger and has partly inspired the line for Target; she is also the spokesperson for this new line, as she writes about it on her very popular blog.

‘Amy Westcott is credited as the costume designer for the 2010 drama film Black Swan, and received several award nominations. A publicized controversy arose regarding the question who had designed 40 ballet costumes for Portman and the dancers. An article in the British The Independent suggested those costumes had actually been created by the Mulleavy sisters. Westcott challenged that view and stated that in all only 7 costumes, among them the black and white swan, had been created in a collaboration between Rodarte, Westcott, and Aronofsky. Furthermore, the costumes for the ballet corps were designed by Zack Brown (for the American Ballet Theater), and slightly adapted by Westcott and her costume design department. Westcott said: "Controversy is too complimentary a word for two people using their considerable self-publicising resources to loudly complain about their credit once they realised how good the film is."’ (Information about what happen with the customer designs for the film black swan)

The collection that I feel connects Rodarte to my Subculture is Spring 2010 collection. Death Valley and Vultures, Go Goth Tribal Warrior inspired the collection. Every model had her arms painted with makeup to appear like tribal tattoos, Goth lips, and their hair wrapped in webbed wool. My favourite thing about this line was that they destroyed all of their fabrics, they burnt it, tie-dyed, there were raw hems, patchwork, it was just amazing, I believe the right words for the clothes are "mangled and tattered".  This collection is perfect for the Goth world. Every Goth I know would wear the collection, its dark, and kind of sexy and just so amazing.