|
|
|
|
 |
 |
At award ceremonies and galas, a new name keeps popping up on the red carpet among the Chanels, Diors, and Versaces: Angel Sanchez.
A trained architect, this native Venezuelan abandoned the drafting table to follow in his dressmaker mama's footsteps. "I read more fashion magazines than children's books as a kid," says the designer, who launched his custom business in Caracas in 1987.
Not content dressing the Venezuelan elite—nor, for that matter, Miss World 1995 (Jackeline Aguilera) and Miss Universe 1996 (Alicia Machado)—Sanchez established a showroom in New York City in 1997 and introduced a bridal line two years later.
"In the beginning, it was a challenge for me," says Sanchez. "Venezuelans only want very dramatic and important gowns. Americans don't like a dress they can't sit down in. They want to look beautiful, but they have to be comfortable."
"I don't use prints and don't make multicolor dresses," says Sanchez. He's hardly a minimalist—"I like texture and detail." Still, if a client's looking for "cha-cha-cha," he says, "I don't play that game."
Sanchez's world changed when Freddie Leiba, stylist to Sandra Bullock, asked him to design the gown in which the star exchanged vows with Jesse James last year. "She didn't want a celebrity wedding dress," Sanchez says. "She just wanted a dress that she had in her mind."
Nine months after she wore Sanchez's white gown, Bullock chose his inky blue strapless dress for the Academy Awards, but not before Eva Longoria wore the designer's coral column to last September's Emmys.
The designer has teamed up with Beco department stores to launch Angel Sanchez Concepto, a contemporary sportswear collection at prices "lower than Zara's." But you'll have to book a flight to Venezuela to score those kinds of bargains. Expansion plans—22 stores are slated to open in the next two years—are so far confined to Sanchez's home turf.
Sanchez is prepping gowns for the film festival, but "you never know," he says, alluding to the fickle nature of celebrity dressing. However, his designs will certainly make an appearance at tonight's El Museo del Barrio 2006 Gala.
—Laird Borrelli
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
RSS content feeds
podcasts