Rachel Roy has dressed the First Lady of the United States, oh, a good twenty times by now, but she has yet to put her in a bathing suit.
So when we ran into the designer at the Pay It Forward Fashion Fundraiser on Thursday night, we made sure to ask the question on all Michelle Obama style watchers' minds this summer:
will FLOTUS wear a swimsuit (she was spotted in one back in 2009), and what style?
For sure, she wears a bathing suit whenever she's on vacation or by the pool -- if I were First Lady, I don't know if everyone would see me wearing a bathing suit either! But I love Norma Kamali bathing suits, I think they are very chic and very appropriate and she kind of designs in a 1940s aesthetic yet modern. So that would be my choice!
Sounds good to us. We talked a bit about Roy's upcoming collaboration with Knicks power forward Amar'e Stoudemire and Macy's, and Rachel told us how she grew into the womenswear designer she is today.
When I started my collection about ten years ago, I was working at Rocawear. At any job that you're working at, you don't necessarily get to choose what you want to do, and when I was working at Rocawear, I was so happy to be working there and I loved what I did, but it wasn't my personal aesthetic. I did the best that I could and I learned as much as I could, and that's where I learned the business of fashion. I hadn't worked on anything in fashion before, and once I left there I understood much of the business of it and I'm thankful for that, to have that knowledge and to be able to apply it to my own business.
So then I started my own collection, I was able to apply my own personal point of view design-wise to Rachel Roy. Rachel Roy the designer line is designed based on the woman that I aspire to be, and Michelle Obama is very much the woman that I aspire to be, and Rachel Rachel Roy is very much the girl that when I was younger, ten years ago, fifteen years ago, who I aspired to be then.
For more of this elegant and intelligent designer, check out pictures of Roy's personal style evolution.
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