By Nikki Neil
Lisa Felsenthal is a friendly, genuinely nice person who just happens to make drop-dead-gorgeous clothes and accessories that range from flowing dresses to embroidered cuffs and detailed belts. The Los Angeles native has always had an interest in art and fashion. However, her journey to becoming a designer was slightly unconventional. While attending Reed College in Portland, Oregon, Lisa studied Fine Arts and Art History. The school’s liberal arts program allowed her to fine-tune her skills in photography, painting, and drawing. For her final project she designed a series of sculptures based on connections between fashion and architecture. This sculptural clothing “finale” inspired a new beginning that led her to study fashion at Otis College.
At Otis the talented designer received numerous awards and honors, among them the Rosalind Gilbert award for evening wear and a Fashion Group International award. Some of her designs were also selected to be featured in the windows of Neiman Marcus. Lisa further honed her talents by interning at Michelle Mason and Jeremy Scott before working as an assistant designer at Rozae Nichols for the A Common Thread line and then at Monique Lhuillier.
In 2008 she launched her LisaMichelle collection, which merged her love of the arts with her passion for fashion design. The vision for her label is to create clothes that are both luxurious and wearable, with a feminine but unfussy beauty about them. Her design aesthetic works for the West Coast bohemian to the Upper East Side fashionista. Her touch is sophisticated and her silhouettes are quite flattering. LisaMichelle clothing has been featured in respected publications, is carried in boutiques in Los Angeles, New York, and Florida, and is worn regularly on NBC’s First Look LA, Open House LA, All my Children, and the CW network.
When creating her garments Lisa often mixes lightweight, luxurious silk jersey, charmeuse, and chiffon with novelty fabrics like metallic jacquard, wool gabardine, and multi-colored knits. Hand painted and pleated gold foiled chiffon, metallic linen, and taffeta are often used throughout. “I try to mix different weights and textures in my collection,” says Lisa. “ I choose my fabrics based on their quality, uniqueness, pattern, and the feel to it.” She sources her unique fabrics and trims from specialty mills throughout Europe, which adds a European flair to her American designs. The end result is a garment that is not only a visual work of art but also reflects the unique individuality of the wearer.
Each piece exhibits Lisa’s meticulous attention to detail and construction. She always strives to come up with fascinating ways of finishing garments, which has led to the expansion of an exquisite line of multi-use accessories that accentuate her beautiful creations. “I also like to dress up pieces with jeweled and ribbon belts, cuffs, and accessories, which began my new accessory collection for Spring,” states the ambitious designer.” I draw influence from a combination of everything that I see around me: art, vintage fashion, architecture, music, people on the streets, and places that I visit. Sometimes I don’t even realize how much something has influenced me until I see traces of it in my designs.”
Inspired by sculptural materials sourced from India and Italy her Fall 2011 accessories collection has a bohemian chic feel to it. These artistic creations will be available at the 2011 GRAMMY Style Studio for nominees, presenters, and performers to select so they can wear them on the Red Carpet in order to add that “Wow” factor to their outfit. To view the LisaMichelle collection visit www.lisamichellecollection.com
