Isabel Toledo

Photo credit: vivafashionblog

Isabel Toledo is a Cuban-born designer who has been on the fashion scene since introducing her first collection in 1985. She is an original, designing distinctive, often architectural clothing making deliberate choices to live a certain way with her artist husband, Ruben Toledo. Her book, Roots of Style, Weaving Together Life, Love, and Fashion was an eye-opening read. This piece from Harper's Bazaar, offers a nice snapshot of Isabel Toledo and her husband.  I learned a great deal about how Toledo lives as an artist,  and how her dedication to her craft has paid off. This book also gave me insight into what goes into creating a clothing collection from the ground floor up.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book which go way beyond fashion:

Fashion design moves forward when people think for themselves and dress their own minds and moods.

A person with true style is displaying a fertile and thinking mind. 

(This is what Wardrobe Wisdom is about!) People with style dress in harmony with their inner, most authentic selves. 

Clothing can help the wearer give voice to her emotions, whether she is feeling vulnerable, sensual, confident, powerful, or playful. Choices in color, texture, materials, and the cut of our clothes can all add up to a composite portrait of our inner psychological makeup. 

Fashion is much more than just clothes. It's about finding and defining yourself, and communicating your personality and individuality to other people through your outward appearance. 

If you can stay in love and keep your enthusiasm for what you choose to do with your life, you are living well indeed. 

Creativity stalks every profession. It is just waiting to happen. 

[Couture garments] are masterpieces of engineering and craft that are not always evident from the outside, but created for the wearer's ease and comfort as well as the splendor of the total effect. 

It is far easier sometimes to find an exquisite dress for a special occasion than it is to figure out your daily look.

Intelligent clothes earn a place of honor in your wardrobe, because these are the items you reach for again and again.

A great design has no expiration date. 

She offers profound fashion and life advice throughout the book, but the conclusion is especially brilliant and useful.