Nicknamed the “lumberjacks of fashion” in their debut in Vogue,
Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra have also been a large part
of the Brooklyn Movement. The Wall Street Journal claimed, “they
anticipated the hipster movement. They’re pioneers.” Fashionista
said, “In addition to cutting killer dresses season after season,
their uniform–plaid, suspenders, and those signature grizzled beards
make them the original cuddly hipsters of the fashion world.” Born
in Bristol, Pennsylvania, Jeffrey Costello moved to New York during
his teenage years and began his career in fashion designing clothing
for a variety of downtown actresses and musicians. In 1994, he met
partner, New York native and Parson’s School of Design graduate,
Robert Tagliapietra and joined forces to dress the high demand of the
downtown New York film and music scene. Both Robert and Jeffrey were
taught at an early age by their grandmothers in the finer points of
tailoring (both of whom, coincidentally, worked for Norman Norell in
the 1960s). The designers learned couture techniques in patternmaking
and construction as children and throughout the years of creating
custom wardrobes for private clients have honed their skills in
designing the perfect fitting garment. Encouraged by clients to bring
the beauty of their talent to women everywhere, they launched Costello
Tagliapietra with the Spring 2005 runway collection and went on to win
the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Award that same year. Costello
Tagliapietra were then named finalists of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund
both in 2005 and 2006, and in the summer of 2006, both designers were
elected to the CFDA. In 2010, the designers won the CFDA/Lexus Hybrid
Living Award as well as collaborated with Uniqlo on two consecutive
highly successful collections. Always inspired by their intuitive
understanding of the female physique and the desire to make a woman
feel confident, comfortable and beautiful, Robert and Jeffrey play
with the tension between fabric, drape and silhouette that borders on
couture in technique and process– creating a vision of ultra
femininity and modern elegance.
