Costello Tagliapietra was born out of a mutual obsession for the artisanal traditions of dressmaking and tailoring. Leaning heavily into the designers worlds of craft where they learned as children, couture techniques in pattern making, construction and how to design the perfect fitting garment(by their grandmothers both of whom coincidentally both worked for Norman Norell in the 1960’s).

The Costello Tagliapietra collection, beautiful both inside and out is masterfully finished and expertly tailored with gussets, bound edges traced with vintage lace trims and French seams. Empowering and Romantic at the same time through its play with the tension between fabric, drape and silhouette. Approaching fabrics from their most core values, then rethinking and repurposing their uses. Jerseys are treated as wovens, wovens draped like jerseys giving each fabric new life and surprise to the wearer.

The designers have created a unique vision that is both elegant and timeless. The brand was developed in a deliberate way by finding a niche in the ready-to-wear market while still holding on to their couture, made–to-measure techniques that defined them as designers. Finding inspiration in music, art and fashion the references for their collections are not solely dictated by a certain decade, muse or idea, but rather a myriad of inspirations blended, building a silhouette and look that is distinctly their own and exists in its own time. Awash in the idea of joining the future and primitive, the digital and the hand, the nostalgic and the dream.

The late Andre Leon Talley referred to Costello Tagliapietra as the last great American dressmakers, they proudly continue this tradition into the future.

Beginning in 2005, Costello Tagliapietra won the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Award and was nominated for the CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund two years in a row. They also went on to several successful collaborations including two years with Uniqlo, Disney and 10+ years at Barneys NY. As trusted collaborators for numerous artists and performers, they have created stage wear and custom wardrobes for Bjork, Bruce and Patti Springsteen, Depeche Mode, FischerSpooner and Nine Inch Nails, among others. Their work has been exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and is in the permanent collections of The Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum at FIT.

Selected Exhibitions:

• Eco-Fashion: Going Green, The Museum at FIT, Summer 2010. - an exhibition exploring the evolution of the fashion industry’s multifaceted and complex relationship with the environment.

• American Beauty: Aesthetics and Innovation in Fashion, The Museum at FIT, Fall 2009. - the first exhibition to explore how the "philosophy of beauty" is allied to the craft of dressmaking.

• New York Fashion Now, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Spring 2007. - an exhibition of twenty New York designers who launched their labels in the five years between 1999 and 2006.

• Swords into Ploughshares, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Costume Institute, 1995.- an exhibition of major designers throughout history who have been influenced by military aesthetics.

Selected Books:

• The ELLEments of Personal Style: 25 Modern Fashion Icons on How to Dress, Shop, and Live by Joe Zee and Maggie Bullock, 2010.-our work with Padma Lakshmi is discussed.

• American Beauty by Patricia Mears, The Museum at FIT, 2009.

• Fashion Illustration by Fashion Designers by Laird Borrelli, Thames and Hudson, 2007.

• New York Fashion Now by Sonnet Stanfill, The Victoria and Albert Museum, 2007.

• Sample, Phaidon Press, June 2005. -Representing 100 influential designers who have emerged within the past ten years.