Daily Front Row

2013 February 7

Ten Designers to Watch!

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Tim Coppens, Tanya Taylor, and Ostwald Helgason's designers
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(NEW YORK) NYFW's runway roster is at capacity, your dance card is double-booked, and the invites keep piling up! What gives? The new guard has officially arrived.  
BY MARIA DENARDO

Bellavance
Designers: Nolan Bellavance and Ava Hama
Launched: 2013
Birthplace: (NB) Alberta, Canada (AH) Manhattan
Astro sign: (NB) Taurus/Gemini (AH) Aries
Industry cred: 2013 winner of the MADE for Peroni Young Designer Award
Secret skill: (NB) “Gifted voice actor despite being tone deaf” (AH) “Can wiggle my ears”
Nerd factor: (NB) “Sci-fi fanatic” (AH) “Father created G.I. Joe”
First summer job: (NB) “Grocery stock boy” (AH) “Paid internship at Theory”
Dream gig: (NB) “Film director” (AH) “Food critic”
Hobbies: (NB) “Collecting elephant figurines” (AH) “Adding to my vast lip balm collection”
Rap song: (NB) “‘How Many Licks’ by Lil’ Kim”
Distraction: (NB) “Scientific American” (AH) “Apartamento”
Pets: (NB) “Edie Sedgwick, my 6-year-old cat”
Fun fact: “Nolan’s slept more nights on Ava’s couch than he’s slept in his own apartment in four years.”

Tim Coppens 
Designer: Tim Coppens
Launched: 2011
Key retailers: Barneys, Louis Boston, Tokyo’s Isetan, and London’s LN-CC and Dover Street Market
Birthplace: Belgium
Stats: Senior designer at Adidas, design director at RLX
Industry cred: 2013 FGI Rising Star award for menswear and 2012 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation award for best new menswear

Maki Oh
Designer: Maki Osakwe
Launched: 2010
Key retailers: Maryam Nassir Zadeh and Totokaelo
Birthplace: Lagos, Nigeria, where the label is based
Astro sign: Virgo
Mentors: “Tonye Osakwe and Duro Olowu”
First summer job: “Worked at London fashion week as a hostess”
Dream job: “Dancer for Fela Kuti”
Hobbies: “I like to smell things”
Obsession: “Auras, energy, and chi”
Industry bestie: Adobe Photoshop
Motto: “Gentlemen, start your engines, and may the best woman win”
Distraction: “Does Wallpaper count?”
Voted most likely to: “Try to become a Formula 1® driver”
Can’t live without: “Teas and clicky pencils”
Illicit crush: “Nigerian musician Burna Boy”
Pipeline projects: “Maki Oh accessories”

Ostwald Helgason
Designers: Susanne Ostwald and Ingvar Helgason
Launched: 2008
Key retailers: Browns Focus, Opening Ceremony, Fivestory, Louis Boston, Ikram, Brown Thomas, and Club 21
Birthplace: (SO) Germany (IH) Iceland
Astro sign: (SO) Sagittarius (IH) Aries
Mentor: (SO) “Marjan Pejoski”
Secret skill: (SO) “Tetris” (IH) “PC Man”
First summer job: (SO) “Archiving for a German writer” (IH) “Gardener”
Dream gig: (SO) “Zookeeper”  (IH) “Bioengineer”
Obsession: (SO) “K-Stew and shiny things” (IH) “Reese’s Cups”
Industry besties: “Mira Duma, Anya Ziourova, and Natalie Joos”
Motto: (IH) “At least nobody died!”
Distraction: (SO) “The New Yorker” (IH) “The Economist”
Survival technique: “Keep running and don’t look down”

Tanya Taylor
Designer: Tanya Viyada Taylor
Launched: 2011
Key retailers: Moda Operandi, Louis Boston, United Arrows, Satine, and Owen 
Stats: Former designer at Elizabeth and James
Birthplace: Toronto
Astro sign: Sagittarius
Mentor: “My Persian cat, Oscar. He has a way with fur.”
Nerd factor: “I can remember the number of every credit card I have ever owned”
First summer job: “Window display girl at a vintage store called PaperBag Princess”
Dream gig: “Ballet dancer…or accountant”
Bedside read: “Men Are Stupid, Women Are Crazy”
Distraction: “Garden and Gun”
Voted most likely to: “Fall asleep mid-sentence”
Survival technique: “Coconut water, pomegranate seeds, and dancing”
Can’t live without: “La Colombe coffee”
Illicit crush: “The possible son of Rose Byrne and Ryan Gosling”
Pipeline project: “Working on a coffee academy in Haiti with The Clinton Foundation”

Public School
Designers: Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne
Launched: Spring/Summer 2008
Key retailers: Barneys, Bloomingdale’s, Odin, and Ron Herman
Stats: (DC) Former creative director at Sean John (MO) Worked in the design department at Sean John
Birthplace: NYC
Astro sign: (DC) Pisces (MO) Virgo
Industry cred: CFDA Incubator alums
Secret skill: (DC) “Lightsaber” (MO) “Rolling a perfect cigarette”
Nerd factor: “Our last answer”
First summer job: (DC) “Selling rollerblades at Paragon” (MO) “Working retail at Tommy Hilfiger”
Motto: “Find perfection in imperfection”
Distraction: “New York Times Magazine”
Voted most likely to: (DC) “Get pregnant after graduation” (MO) “Get arrested”
Survival technique: “Stop, drop, and roll”
Illicit crush: “This week? Kat Dennings!”
Pipeline projects: “Accessories, made in New York denim, and our own retail shop”
And we quote: “This questionnaire took us three hours to answer”