Costa Goes Inside the Designer's Studio
On March 12, the Otis College of Art + Design welcomed Francisco Costa, the New York–based creative director of Calvin Klein, to the Pacific Design Center for a conversation with Otis’ fashion design chair, Rosemary Brantley. The evening, a part of Otis’ Inside the Designer’s Studio series, was open to the public, with proceeds from ticket sales going to benefit the work of the fashion design students at Otis. Elle magazine hosted a cocktail reception after the Q&A.
Costa, who last year won the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s Womenswear Designer of the Year award, was in town to participate in Otis’ mentorship program. Each year, Otis hosts professional designers who give design direction to a small group of juniors and seniors as they work through the design process, from research and sketches through draping and production of the final garment. “I learn more from the students than I actually give,” Costa told the crowd.
Other designers who have participated in the mentorship program include Alan Shu and Susan Lee for Armani Exchange, Behnaz Sarafpour, Bob Mackie, Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor of Juicy Couture, Christopher Enuke, Wanda Weller for Patagonia, Rod Beattie for La Blanca Swimwear, and swim designer Red Carter.
Costa and Brantley discussed the designer’s childhood in Brazil and his eventual move to New York after a failed stint as a student of accounting and business organization. The apparel industry runs in Costa’s family, he said. As a child, he and his siblings worked in their mother’s children’s apparel factory, and the designer said several of his brothers have also made careers in the industry.
Costa, who worked as a senior designer at Oscar de la Renta and Gucci before landing at Calvin Klein, encouraged design students to be persistent in their pursuit of a career. “If you have a passion for the craft, work hard and have perseverance. Go for it; have no fear,” he told students. His first job was designing polyester print dresses for a New York–based brand, Costa said. Now, under his direction, Calvin Klein reached $4 billion dollars in retail sales in 2006.
Giving students a peek into his world, Costa said he focuses on fabric when he designs. “It begins and ends with the fabric,” he said. And, despite being the face of the minimalist Calvin Klein, Costa said he doesn’t consider himself a minimalist. “Right now I am not a minimalist, and it is a challenge for me to do what I’ve done,” he said, adding that the job of a designer is to bend his vision to meet the needs of the brand. —Erin Barajas
