Yesterday, came the turn of Rodarte at New York Fashion Week. As well as a gallery of images of their new collection – inspired by Disney's Sleeping Beauty and the sunflower and star-laden work of Vincent van Gogh – here the brand is the focus of
Yesterday, came the turn of Rodarte at New York Fashion Week. As well as a gallery of images of their new collection – inspired by the 1959 animated Disney classic Sleeping Beauty and the sunflower and star-laden work of Dutch postimpressionist painter Vincent van Gogh – here the brand is the focus of AnOther's latest Pronunciation Guide.
Rising to prominence almost overnight, the Mulleavy sisters' story has always evoked curiosity, not least because the name they design under, Rodarte, suggests a more colourful ancestry than their immediate history – which saw them relocate from California to New York – can account for. Rodarte is their mother’s maiden name. A Spanish surname, it is pronounced ro–dart–tay with an emphasis on all three syllables.
Graduating from U.C Berkeley, Kate and Laura Mulleavy studied Art History and English Literature respectively and have never received a formal training in design. Instead, they were taught how to sew by their mother, which perhaps explains their unaffected, original and almost makeshift approach to fashion – their first look-book which caught the eye of Anna Wintour in 2005 consisted of 10 paper dolls, intricately cut to represent the complicated, deconstructed garments, which have now become Rodarte’s signature, couture-like aesthetic. Their brilliance was confirmed in 2007, when only two years after the creation of Rodarte, The Met Institute acquired one of the sibling duo’s yellow, silk dresses for their permanent collection.
The surname Rodarte initially stemmed from the Mulleavy’s grandfather, a Zacatecan coal miner who left for America during the Mexican Revolution. The duo’s grandmother emigrated from Rome to Los Angeles during WW1 and their mother, Victoria Mulleavy – who is behind Rodarte’s jewellery collection – was also born in Rome. Their father is a botanist with a PhD from Berkeley whom the sisters have said influenced their enthusiasm for detail. “He was part of a community that was obsessed with things on a microscopic level,” explains Laura Mulleavy. The name Rodarte is mostly found in Portugal, Spain and northern Mexico and means renown, bright, and famous.
Text by Fiona Cook
