February 26, 2010
Originally published in WSJ Speakeasy blog
Tags: Gilles Mendel, J. Mendel
Many designers big and small would do just about anything for a chance to dress an actress at the Academy Awards. But gown designer Gilles Mendel, the designer behind glamorous line J. Mendel, is more sanguine about it.
At a talk at Manhattan's French Institute Alliance Francaise, the designer discussed growing up in a family of furriers, moving to Manhattan and how he grew the family company into luxury brand. He told anecdotes of sleeping on sables when he was child, and said that he started making women's clothes in the 1980s because he thought anti-fur protesters wouldn't smash his Madison Avenue windows at night if he showcased dresses over minks.
