Michael Bastian

After graduating from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, Michael Bastian moved to New York City, where his first job was as an Assistant Buyer at Abraham & Strauss. This was followed by positions within Sotheby’s, Tiffany & Co., Polo Ralph Lauren, and most recently, Bergdorf Goodman, where he was the men’s fashion director for five years. It was this experience that led Bastian to launch in 2006 his own men’s wear line. The line, produced under a licensing agreement by the Italian company Brunello Cucinelli, is now carried in over 50 retail locations in America, Canada, Japan, Europe, and the Middle East. The licensing agreement with Cucinelli was terminated in December 2010.

Max Azria

With a desire to let their artistic voices be heard, Max and Lubov Azria fused their mutual passion to give life to Max Azria, the eponymous designer label that debuted during New York Fashion Week in February 2006.

Inspired by organic elements, weightless volume and individualistic style, Max Azria embodies the true visionary. The line’s luxurious fabrics and signature design aesthetic have made the collection a favorite among style-setters such as Madonna, Angelina Jolie, Kate Beckinsale and Eva Mendes, among others.

Encompassing a lifetime of work, Max Azria has given Max and Lubov Azria the opportunity to take their creative vision a step further and has ultimately become their poetic means of self-expression.

Murray Moss

In 1994, former fashion entrepreneur Murray Moss opened Moss in a small gallery space in Soho, with a determination to transform the public perception of industrial product design. The store quickly became internationally known for its product selection and presentation, with clients ranging from highly informed design professionals, to celebrities, students, and tourists with maps. The shop grew and evolved — expanding to nearly 7000 square feet in late 1999 when Moss’s partner Franklin Getchell joined the company. Together they expanded the product base to include furniture, especially from Italian manufacturers, lighting, watches and jewelry, books, tabletop and a significantly increased focus on the studio work of the designers we offered. The furniture and objects offered at the shop deliberately blur the distinctions between production and craft, between industry and art, and more recently, between industrial and decorative arts. The intention is to force a view of each piece based on the context of its presentation, rather than its function or material. At Moss, context is fundamental, and value can be inferred from inaccessibility. The shop intentionally looks and feels like a museum, with everything locked behind glass or raised onto platforms. It’s cold. It’s white. The music is tense. The selling staff wear dark monotone clothing. And Asian, black or white, male or female, they register as one — young, good looking, courteous, helpful, and informed. Above all, informed. Provenance, designer, manufacturer, materials, manufacturing process — the staff is poised to discuss all aspects of each product, including the assembling of component systems of shelving, tables or seating. The shop functions as arbiter, advocate, and presenter, as well as gallery, showroom and salon. Moss has been instrumental in shaping the direction of design retail, with influence far out of keeping with its size. Its reputation is global but its roots are firmly in New York. After a brief foray into Los Angeles demonstrated the singular strength of its base in New York, Moss is once again fully and firmly grounded on Greene Street.

Zero + Maria Cornejo

Zero + Maria Cornejo opened in 1998 as a purely retail concept when, prompted by a desire to re-connect with the core of her ideas about design, cutting and garment construction, Chilean-born designer Maria Cornejo transformed a raw space in New York's Nolita into a very personal store and atelier named Zero.

The name was an expression of a pure vision: a number that neither adds nor subtracts; it is, rather, a point of departure. Spare, modern, architectural, minimal, feminine, and unpretentious are all words that have been used to describe Maria Cornejo's work for Zero and each season she reaches into her own international experience (having lived and worked in London, Paris and now New York) to develop a collection that is unexpectedly simple yet based on sophisticated cuts and angles. Using volume and circular shapes as a starting point; garments are often draped and cut from one piece of fabric.
A subtle evolution process, Maria continually develops her techniques from one season to the next to create dynamic and intelligent clothing for women. Aside from women's ready-to-wear, Zero + Maria Cornejo's growing product categories include handbags, accessories; and now shoes and boots in collaboration with Eileen Shields.

In 2005, Maria partnered with long-time friend and colleague Marysia Woroniecka to form a new company to expand the Zero brand and in May of 2006 they opened a second directly operated store in New York's Meatpacking District. The line is sold in leading stores around the world such as Barneys New York, Holt Renfrew in Canada; Ikram Chicago and Blake Chicago; Mac San Francisco; Dover Street Market London and Tokyo; and Joyce Boutique Hong Kong.

In February 2009, Zero + Maria Cornejo moved its Mott Street store after 10 years to the home of its new flagship store/showroom/atelier at 33 Bleecker Street, New York.

Maria Cornejo was honored as a Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award Winner in 2006.

Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs was born in New York City on April 9, 1963. After graduating from the High School of Art and Design in 1981 he entered Parsons School of Design. As a design student at Parsons, Jacobs was the recipient of some of the schools highest honors including Design Student of the Year.
In 1986 Jacobs designed his first collection with the Marc Jacobs label. The following year, Jacobs received the distinct honor of being the youngest designer ever to be awarded the fashion industry’s highest tribute: The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent.
In the fall of 1993, Jacobs Duffy Designs Inc. launched their own licensing and design company: Marc Jacobs International Company, L.P.
In 1989 Jacobs and business partner Robert Duffy joined Perry Ellis as Vice-President of Women’s Design and President respectively. In 1992, the CFDA once again bestowed Jacobs with a distinct honor: the Women’s Designer of the Year Award for his fabled Grunge Collection.
Jacobs and Duffy joined Louis Vuitton in 1997, Jacobs as Artistic Director and Duffy as Studio Director. They also opened the first Marc Jacobs free standing store on Mercer Street in New York’s Soho district.
Marc Jacobs website