Six Six Sick: Everybody's Talking About Joseph Altuzarra

Joseph and I at his studio with his dog, Bean. I'm wearing one of his Santiago Calatrava inspired tops.

I've had to wait a few months to publish this post, since Vogue had an exclusive, but now that the article is out in this month's issue, I feel like it is a good time to belatedly fete Joseph Altuzarra, one of my oldest friends in the fashion industry. I first met Joseph when we were naive undergraduates at Swarthmore College, which is known for its rigorous liberal arts curriculum and high academic standards. It most definitely is not known for producing fashionable, or even fashion interested students, and the only famous person within the industry to have graduated from Swarthmore is the Editor in Chief of the decidedly unglamorous Glamour Magazine, Cindy Leive. In fact, Swarthmore is so anti-fashion, that an editor from Women's Wear Daily came and interviewed Joseph and I, questioning us on what it was like to be fashionable in such a decidedly unfashionable setting. The end result, which I have buried somewhere, is one of our first and silliest press clippings, a picture of us together in the back of WWD striking our best blase looking (but still unperfected) fashion poses.

Of course, that was way before we were thrust into the Devil Wears Prada world, where attitude is usually inversely proportionate to intelligence, and inhumanly bitchy bosses run more rampant than the talent they allegedly promote. Many a tear has since been shed on both sides, but thankfully over the years we've both learned enough of the ins and outs of the industry to avoid nasty work environments, and Joseph has definitely learned to thrive amongst the cutthroat competition.

Which brings us to now. Joseph, at the age of 25, is launching his first Women's RTW line. After some intensive stints at Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler, and most recently, designing under Ricardo Tisci at Givenchy, Joseph's amazing technical skills and enormous creative talent have finally come to fruition under his own name. Already, Style.com is hailing him as the "New Boy Wonder," and he will be selling his Spring 09 collection at Barneys New York, Ikram, and London's Dover Street Market. Not bad for a first season. I got to preview his collection months ago at his apartment/studio, and try on some of the super flattering, body conscious clothing. Here are the pictures from my visit...