For Laura Miles, an obscure Fashion star

Michelle Obama in a Thakoon dress, colours by Laura Miles.

Fashion is all about names: Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Miuccia Prada, Emanuel Ungaro are more than designers, they are immortals who shaped the world of fashion into the million star firmament it is today. Their names shine in golden letters on the fashion skylight.

Sometimes though, I wonder who Yves Saint Laurent would have been without the elfic talent of embroiderer Francois Lesage.

Suppliers are little spoken of in this brilliant world of shapes and artifice, but they are really the powder within the firework rocket: where would be the new Ungaro collection without the vibrant fabrics Esteban Cartazar used to energize his silhouettes?

For them all, for the forgotten, for the ones who work in the shadow and make magic happen, I want to celebrate Laura Miles: she is not champagne and black ties, she still takes the suppliers entrance instead of the red carpet one, but the fabrics she creates are some of the most inventive and flamboyant on the runway, and she puts life and character in designer clothing. Jonathan Saunders, Carolina Herrera and Issac Mizrahi have been inspired to create strong designs out of her rainbow of irridescent fabrics.

When you see Michelle Obama in one of her designs, you know the girl has some character, and she is just in the right place: colour for colour, warmth for warmth, Laura Miles is an obscure North star who will guide fashion to its North.

Champagnista V