Acclaimed fashion designer Isabel Toledo has died at the age of 59.
Toledo is best known for creating Michelle Obama’s inauguration dress in 2009.
In 2012 Toledo told CNN she was not a “fashion person,” she was an “engineer.”
Her professional partner and husband Ruben said that she died of breast cancer.
The two met in secondary school. Ruben claims that, for him, it was love at first sight. They were married in 1984 and were close professional collaborators. The BBC reported that they were rarely seen apart.
Ruben is an artist and illustrator. He would draw his wife’s designs, including the 1960s-inspired shift dress and coat Obama wore while her husband was sworn in as the first black president of the United States.
On that historic day in January 2009, the color of the new first lady’s dress was the subject of debate among commentators who referred to it as green, yellow, or gold.
Toledo said it was lemongrass, “a very optimistic colour, that had sunshine,” according to The New York Times.
Toledo arrived in New Jersey from Cuba when she was a teenager. She began sewing when she was 8 years old.
She trained as a fashion designer at the Fashion Institute of Technology and then attended Parsons School of Design. Then, she went on to intern for fashion editor Diana Vreeland.
Working as an independent designer, she presented her first collection at a New York nightclub in 1984 and went on to sell pieces in luxury fashion stores around the world.
Later, she transcended the restrictions of the catwalk. She engineered her new collections on her own timetable. From 2006-7, she was the creative director for Anne Klein.
She wrote her autobiography in 2012, entitled “Roots of Style,” illustrated by Ruben and recounted their lives together.
In 2014, she told Interview Magazine, “I love experimentation and eccentricities. I like not knowing something and then discovering.”
By Jeanette Smith
Sources:
BBC: Isabel Toledo, Michelle Obama’s inauguration dress designer, dies at 59
CNN: Isabel Toledo, designer who made Michelle Obama’s 2009 inauguration dress, has died, report says
The Washington Post: Isabel Toledo’s inauguration wardrobe for Michelle Obama exuded the optimism of a historic moment
Image Courtesy of Embajada de EEUU en la Argentina’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
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