Couture ENK Show

Couture ENK International’s 34th Fashion Coterie show featured hundreds of designers, ranging from niche market to mass merchant to luxury lines. At this essential stop for women’s wear buyers, Liberty News Online interviewed three up-and-coming designers.

Arzu Kaprol has the luxury of being a high-end brand whose success is due almost entirely to word of mouth. Ms. Kaprol always wanted to design: she got a degree in finance in Paris, and returned to her

home of Istanbul, Turkey where she built up her own clothing business a decade ago. Still rooted in Istanbul, her “semi-couture prêt-a-porter” clothing is sold throughout Turkey as well as in London, Paris, and New York. The only advertising she has done has been through a Turkish exporter’s council established to promote home talent such as herself, and said advertising has been solely through trade magazines such as Women’s Wear Daily. Her clothing may be found in boutiques in her abroad locales, but he has her own boutiques in Istanbul, altogether generating an annual business volume of $500,000 a year. In Turkey hers is a well-known brand which has had no need to advertise—her luxurious garments speak for themselves. Arzu Kaprol has done runway shows in London and Germany, and her pieces are made only of Turkish silks, leathers, and wools. Garments start at $300 and eveningwear goes up to $1,400. Her leather jackets are especially popular, with prices around $1,400. Ms. Kaprol has done charity work for breast cancer in partnership with Lycra® spandex and has done shows to raise money for orphans. For more information on Arzu Kaprol, go to www.arzukaprol.net.

Véronica Pesantes was halfway through getting her doctorate’s degree in art history when, five years ago, she decided to design. Now Vero Santes accessories, based in Manhattan, are sold at high-end boutiques in America (including Henri Bendel and boutiques in the Hamptons), Japan, Bali, Spain and France. Her seasonal lines of resort and fall handbags, knits and hats have made appearances on the editorial pages of Lucky, Cosmopolitan, In Style, Town & Country, and Elle. Her accessories are made of South American felt, straw, alpaca, and leather. Retail prices range from $65-$165, with handbags and crushable beach hats (retailing at $75) as her most popular items last year. Ms. Pesantes has auctioned off items to raise money for schools and hospitals. Products available online at Girlshop.com

Sara Chiaramonte’s line, Tashia, was one of the first to introduce thenow-ubiquitous pashmina and is currently keeping the folks at Pucci on their toes with her fabulous prints. A former journalist at Tattler, Ms. Chiaramonte started her line five years ago out of her home while pregnant—she thought to produce pashminas a year before the trend took off, and her timing was immaculate. Pashminas launched her industry, and now she is especially famous for her vintage print silk scarves. Items are made from the absolute best silks, furs, leathers, suedes and cashmere available, and in addition to scarves she produces tunics, wraps, shawls, pashminas, gilets and jackets. Japan represents her biggest market where, as branding is of utmost importance there, Tashia scarves are wildly popular. Ms. Chiaramonte’s clothing is also very successful in America, and is sold at such prestigious stores as Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus Bergdorf Goodman, Henri Bendel and Scoop. She also sells at high-end stores in Europe (Selfridges and Le Bon Marché, among others) and the Middle East, as well as onboard Virgin Atlantic and other airlines. Tashia’s London flagship was recently voted to be the “Best New Shop in the United Kingdom 2002” by Drapers Record. Clothing costs from around $350-$700, and her shearling gilets were some of the only things that sold well at Neiman Marcus in the months following September 11th. A part of Tashia’s $4.5 million annual business volume goes towards orphans in Nepal: Ms. Chiaramonte supports a young girl in Nepal at a foster home, and has produced a line in her honor, “Mya”—a percentage of the proceeds from this line goes towards the orphanage where Mya lives. For more information on Tashia, go to www.tashia.com