Fashion Design

For a while it looked as if Orange County's surfwear industry was living out an Endless Summer. Neon swim trunks, T-shirts emblazoned with surf company logos and beach shorts covered with surfer graffiti were the hottest items in young adult wardrobes from California to Iowa. Beachwear manufacturers that started as cottage industries, such as Garden Grove-based Jimmy' Z, Vision Streetwear of Santa Ana and Maui and Sons of Costa Mesa, became emblazoned on the national consciousness.

This post has been updated. See below for details . Art continues to be very fashionable. In the wake of recent exhibitions that included last year's Rodarte show at LACMA and the late Alexander McQueen at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, another fashion designer has received honors from the fine art world. New York City's Museo del Barrio declared designer Narciso Rodriguez one of the "25 most influential Hispanics in America" in an announcment that it will be honoring the Cuban American next month during its annual gala.

Beyonce's lavish wardrobe is about to get even bigger: The singer-actress now has her own fashion label. Beyonce and her mother, Tina Knowles, who already styles many of her daughter's on- and off-stage outfits, announced a joint venture to create a contemporary women's brand with Arthur and Jason Rabin, founders of manufacturer Wear Me Apparel/Kids Headquarters. The name of the new brand has not been released.

He's been blind since age 15. But nobody can say that Mason Ewing lacks vision. Overcoming a nightmarish childhood, Ewing, 30, has been a successful fashion designer in Paris. For the last six months, however, his mind has been set on Hollywood, where he hopes to create a teen comedy and a dramatic series for television. Born in Cameroon to an American father and a Cameroonian mother and raised in France, his own life has been filled with drama. His mother, a seamstress and dressmaker, was murdered when Ewing was 4, he said.

Pauline Trigere, the French-born fashion design legend who personified American style, died Wednesday of natural causes at her Manhattan apartment. She was 93, but regularly defied her age. Just five months ago, Trigere (pronounced Tree-zhair) demonstrated her awe-inspiring cutting technique to design students at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, recalled Jimmy Newcomer, an associate professor of fashion design.

What will the well-dressed tennis player be wearing in the year 2001? Just ask Santa Monica native Janina Barajas. Barajas designed a futuristic women's tennis outfit to win the Dream Odyssey 2001 fashion design competition. A senior at the Otis/Parsons School of Art and Design in Los Angeles, Barajas, 24, won first place in the Mizuno Fashion Design contest held Feb. 8.

Los Angeles fashion designer Orencio, a protege of designer James Galanos, has died at the age of 41. Orencio, who went by only the single name, died July 10 in Inglewood of complications from AIDS and diabetes, Rosemary Stack said. The wife of actor Robert Stack, she is well-known for her fashion consciousness and often wore Orencio's designs.

Award-winning fashion designer Willi Smith died of pneumonia brought on by AIDS, the lawyer for his estate said today. Smith, 39, died April 17 at Mount Sinai Hospital after being ill for about a month. His body was cremated Monday after a funeral service. Medical reports at the time of death cited pneumonia and blamed it on an attack of shigella, a form of dysentery, acquired on a textile-buying trip to India.

Naomi Campbell has a butterfly tattooed on her bottom. And everyone in the room found out about it at Anna Sui's fashion show. Campbell, the model who moonlights as a backup singer in music videos, spun a black poet's cape off her shoulders to uncover a leather thong, and tattoo, underneath. This really wasn't one of those shows. But it definitely had its moments. Sui uncapped a costume-trunk full of '60s-inspired ideas for her new collection.

You may not know his name now, but if fashion insiders are correct, Los Angeles designer James Sowins will become well-known to customers looking for the kind of clothes you'd get if designs from the patrician Ralph Lauren met up with the surfwear gods at Stussy. Sowins and his Level 7 line were selected to be featured in the West Coast edition of a fashion show put on by Gen Art, a New York group that promotes emerging stars in fashion, film and other arts.

Fashion exhibitions at museums, like the "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" show that set attendance records at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2011, are more popular than ever. Here is a selection of what's on now and what's coming soon, in the U.S. and abroad. Diana Vreeland After Diana Vreeland | Dedicated to the style and passion of the late fashion icon, editor, traveler and Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute curator. Vreeland also worked as a special consultant to the museum from 1972 to the time of her death in 1989, setting the international standard for costume exhibitions.

It would be easy to see the U.S. premiere of Ballet Preljocaj's avant-garde production of "Snow White" ("Blanche Neige"), with music by Mahler, costumes by fashion legend Jean Paul Gaultier and a Thierry Leproust-designed set, as an attempt to capitalize on the current fascination with the darker take on traditional fairy tales that have been cropping up on TV sets and hitting theaters. The American premiere is this weekend at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, but the scheduling is a coincidence, says the artistic director and choreographer of the edgy French ballet company, Angelin Preljocaj.

With mid-priced collections as upscale-looking and lavishly detailed as those on the New York runways for fall, who needs to pay top dollar for fashion? So much of the excitement during the New York Fashion Week shows that wrapped up on Thursday was about the so-called advanced contemporary category of labels that cost less than high-end designer collections without sacrificing style. Among those creating a buzz: Rag & Bone, Tory Burch, Alexander Wang, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Helmut Lang, Theyskens Theory and even the  J. Crew Collection.

Armani, Lagerfeld, Prada, Versace — some of fashion's leading designers have ventured into the world of opera, dressing divas and devils at venues such as La Scala and the Met. The trend, which began in the '80s, "has gone crescendo," says Helena Matheopoulos, who describes the couture-costume connection in the new book "Fashion Designers at the Opera" (Thames & Hudson). The London-based Matheopoulos, a former Tatler fashion editor and author of several opera books, focuses on a dozen designers.

Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs may be the instantly recognizable names in American fashion today. But when it comes to the future establishment, Alexander Wang will surely be on the list. At just 27 years old, he is the reigning superstar of New York Fashion Week. His runway shows are celebrity-studded and his after-parties are not to be missed. He has a $2-million Tribeca loft, his collection is sold in 500 venues worldwide, and he has already attracted the attention of the world's biggest luxury group, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

Bicycles are going couture. Ralph Lauren, Missoni and Kate Spade, better known for fashionable clothing, are now taking up a new product line, designer bicycles - and they are selling fast. Three-speed bicycles with the trademark zig-zag and striped patterns of Italian fashion house Missoni nearly sold out the day of their introduction at Target this month, and only a few are still available in scattered stores. Photos: Bicycle shop Adeline Adeline The two-wheelers, which cost $399, got a jump-start from a covetous celebrity tweet by actress Jessica Alba.

Waste not, want not, Lindsay Jackson might say. Except we could tell right off that this woman is way too hip to go for crusty old maxims. We met at her Westlake condo last week to talk about her start in the design field seven months ago, when she threw over a real estate career to make clothing from old draperies. Destiny must have taken a hand--as fashion design was not something she planned or trained for. "I took one sewing class in seventh grade," the new designer said, "I hated sewing."

The 92 designers who previewed their fall collections during this week's Designers' Collective have at least one thing in common: They are all incurable romantics. But whether they are looking back to the age of Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ozzie Nelson or "Star Trek's" Capt. Kirk for fashion inspirations, they are using fabrics most men have never worn before.

"California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way," which opens Oct. 1 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, aims to dispel the myth that significant contributions by Californians during this period came mainly in art, architecture and high-design ceramics. Wendy Kaplan, head of the decorative arts and design department at the museum, calls them "the usual suspects. " By extending the scope of her new exhibition to furniture, graphic design, fashion, surfboards, even the Studebaker Avanti designed by Raymond Loewy, Kaplan is arguing that what flourished in the state, particularly after World War II, was in fact a much broader movement, one whose influence extended far beyond California's borders.

It may seem too good to be true, but Versace is launching an apparel line at fast-fashion retailer H&M in November. Missoni suede heels, with the luxe Italian fashion house's signature zigzag print, hit the shelves at discount giant Target. Even Vera Wang is designing diamond engagement rings for budget jeweler Zales. Unlikely pairings, perhaps, but shoppers are seeing more of these bargain-luxury combos these days as elite fashion designers increasingly go mass market. At a time when signals of economic distress abound, consumers are responding to the partnerships, turning the hype into huge sales.