Word association with MADE Fashion Week designers continues with the gentlemen of Costello Tagliapietra, Robert Tagliapietra and Jeffrey Costello. This season the bearded and plaid-loving design partners used asymmetry and draping to create fluid silhouettes, highlighting large-scale, abstracted organic prints in dusty, desaturated earth tones. Electric colors shot through the mix. “We wanted the patterns to feel as if they were alive,” Tagliapietra said, citing “Beetlejuice, spookiness, and the notion of haunting” as key touchstones during the design process. So what word brings to mind Madonna for the duo? Read on.
Plaid: Jeffrey: “Robert. Because he always wears it, it’s him.”
Polished: Robert: “Dandy. The ultimate in polished.”
Jeggings: Robert: “Awful…a legging that looks that a jean. There are plenty of skinny jeans out there, you can find an option!”
Collaboration: Robert: “Love. We love collaboration, any sort of love is a collaboration.”
Ladylike: Robert: “Costello. We’re very into that [idea].”
Aspirational: Robert: “Luxury. I really don’t like the idea of something being aspirational, but luxury is aspirational.”
Eye-popping: Robert: “Our prints!”
Rules: Jeffrey: “Tampered. They’re meant to be tampered with.”
Genius: Robert: “Madonna—that’s all I have to say.”
Hot: Robert: “Padma [Lakshmi]. We have to give that to her!”
