interview with WILLIAM TASWELL III

1. When did you first discover your passion for fashion? Well, I've actually been drawing since I was 7 years old. Even then, my focus was women and architecture. I would draw mermaids and castles. I would draw women and design coordinated outfits, lol. It's so weird because I actually still have many of the drawings. I look at them and think, oh my God, how could I have ever drawn such fashion disasters. Though, I think it was the beginning of my calling, fashion was in my soul. I was born for this journey and I'm now living my dream.

2. What's the most exciting thing about what you do? The most exciting thing about do what I do is waking up everyday and being one of the small group of people in the world that gets to do what I absolutely love and have wanted to do all my life. Oddly, I groomed myself to be a doctor until I was 17. I had an impeccable 4.0 GPA and focused on Math and Science studies in school. I was also passionate about the French language and French culture. I speak French proficiently now, and I think my love of France and its culture definitely influenced my monumental decision to pursue fashion as a career instead of studying pre-med. It's a decision I will never regret, because, as stated earlier, I'm excited every day about design. I get to make women look beautiful in my view of a flawless fashion aesthetic.

3. Tell me a little about your position and the company you work for. Currently, I am the Head Designer of Stelle, www.stelleamerica.com. Stelle is a Luxury Knit Sportswear collection, owned by Creative Director, Barbara Baldieri March, an acclaimed European actress/singer, www.barbarabaldieri.com . I joined Stelle as the Head Designer for the Fall 2006 season and am currently finishing Spring 2007 and preparing to start Fall 2007. For Stelle, I direct all aspects of design from my initial sketch to retail production, with the assistance of my assistant, Ronie, and approval of Barbara. Stelle is a young collection, 2 years old, but with the best Showroom representation and PR Firm. Day-to-day is exciting but stressful coordinating teams a sample house, cutting house, and production house, as well as meeting deadlines, making fabric appointments. Stressful yes, but hey, I have the position a million other designers would kill for, and trust me during my 4 almost 5 years in the industry professionally, I would have killed, backstabbed, and done even more immoral things to get where I am if I had to. Luckily, I didn't have to do many of those things and let my quality of work speak for itself, though I did cut off my locks to advance my career in the high-end sector of my industry. Most people would be shocked that something like that would matter, but in the high-end sector of this industry, you can be eccentric with your style, but your visual grooming aesthetic needs to be conservative. A lesson I learned early and quickly.

4. What inspires you? My design aesthetic is very rich and luxurious. For my personal design aesthetic, I am inspired by women that are "Uptown chic, with downtown style". For Stelle, my inspiration is Barbara and her lifestyle. She's fabulous. I design classic and chic clothes with a little bit of a twist and edge. The idea of Stelle is to have chic clothes that can travel well with just a little bit of maintenance. Stelle looks like there's so much effort but the women that is the Stelle woman is fabulous effortlessly. Trust me, Stelle is beautifully constructed and the fabrics are of the highest quality. Overall, I am inspired by any and everything fabulous and that's just that.

5. Who are your favorite designers? tell me 3 and why you like them? This is such an easy question. My favorite designers are Matthew Williamson, Olivier Theyskens, Nicholas Ghesquiere, Stefano Pilati, Michael Kors, Lawrence Steele, and most importantly my three favorites are Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, and Tom Ford.

Oscar de la Renta- He is absolutely one of the masters of fashion. His ability to consistently, season after season, re-create the Oscar aesthetic without compromising the integrity of the collection but making women seamlessly beautiful is unparalleled by any other designer in my opinion. Not to mention he's known as the consummate gentleman of the fashion industry, a title I would someday like to behold.

Carolina Herrera- She epitomizes the image of her collection. She is chic, elegant, and fabulous. I love everything about her as a designer and person. Her silhouette is absolutely adorable. Known for putting pockets in evening gowns and ball skirts, a design detail that I love to utilize in many of my personal designs.

Tom Ford- Tom Ford showcases that you can be an effective and creative designer but still make financially successful collections. I am also a designer that thinks about the bottom line while designing. If realistically, a garment isn't going to sell, then I'm not designing it. He is a pioneer of this type of designer and I appreciate the years we were fortunate enough to have him at Gucci and YSL. He's one of the greatest designers of our time.

6. How would you describe your own sense of fashion? who are you wearing right now? My personal sense of fashion is the same as my design aesthetic. I'm "uptown chic with downtown style". I only wear bootleg to flare leg pants, my favorites are J. Lindeberg slacks and True Religion Joey jeans. I'm rather conservative with pant styles. I prefer clean lines, but periodically I'll purchase a pant that has some design details going on. I'm more adventurous with my shirts though. I love a shirt with beautiful design details, such as embellishments, beadings, prints, etc.. For tops, I wear a lot of D&G, Andrew Buckler, Marc by Marc Jacobs, and J. Lindeberg. Also, I love jackets and coats for spring and fall. Most of my coats are J. Lindeberg, but I bought, this past spring, this amazing light blue Victor & Rolf aviator jacket that I adore. Also, one of my favorite jackets is this green iridescent taffeta jacket from Calvin Klein Collection by Francisco Costa. People always compliment the fabrication and I love, love, love it. I don't really care for accessories much, I normally buy one brown shoe, one black shoe, and one neutral colored boot each season, usually from Hugo Boss, and Kenneth Cole Collection, but this past spring it was all about Dsquared for shoes and boots for me. Same goes for belts, but that's like once a year, normally Gucci and D&G. My jewelry is very muted, just my watch on my left wrist, spiritual bracelet on my right, and a Swarovski crystal necklace.

Today, I'm wearing a green/white tie-dyed D&G crew neck sweater that I also have in orange/white. You know I love something if I buy more than one color, which isn't often. Also, again, another pair of True Religion Joey jeans and my Dsquared boots. These boots have been like my everyday shoe and my other shoes I wear seldom. I prefer to save my shoes for fashion functions or other events.

7. Do you have any tips for someone trying to break into the fashion industry? The most important tip for someone trying to break in to the fashion industry, is to attend a fashion school and get a formal education. Unless you can benefit from some sort of preferential treatment or nepotism, classical training is a must. There is so much more to design than just sketching a pretty illustration. You must know how to make that garment. A keen knowledge of sewing, draping, and patternmaking is something we are trained to know. Most of us don't do any of these things outside of school because we are trained to dictate to the appropriate teams of the garments construction and pattern, after all, even in entry-level the job of fashion designer is an executive position. Not to mention, you have to learn and perfect Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, among various other computer programs that are essential to the life of a designer. The job of the fashion designer is 24-7 and should not be taken lightly, after all fashion design ranks within the top 10 of most strenuous and time-consuming majors among colleges alongside medicine and law. It's not a 40 billion dollar industry for nothing, actually it's the industry we absolutely can't live without. Our industry is seen as pretentious and trivial but we work really hard and our days are never-ending, so to become a designer should be a very well-thought out decision and not taken lightly.