Nicknamed the “lumberjacks of fashion” in their debut in Vogue, Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra have also been a large part of the Brooklyn Movement. The Wall Street Journal claimed, “they anticipated the hipster movement. They’re pioneers.”Fashionista said, “In addition to cutting killer dresses season after season, their uniform–plaid, suspenders, and those signature grizzled beards make them the original cuddly hipsters of the fashion world.”

Born in Pennsylvania, Jeffrey moved to New York during his teenage years and began designing clothing for downtown actresses and musicians. In 1994, he met New York native and Parson’s graduate, Robert. Both having grown up around a family of tailors were taught dressmaking, tailoring and pattern making at an early age (their grandmothers both coincidentally, worked for Norman Norell).

Launched in Spring 2005, Costello Tagliapietra went on to win the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Award that same year. They were then named finalists of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund both in 2005 and 2006, and in the summer of 2006, both designers were elected to the CFDA. In 2010, the designers won the CFDA/Lexus Hybrid Living Award as well as collaborated with Uniqlo on two consecutive highly successful collections. JCRT is the next chapter for them, a return to their roots of tailoring with a collection anchored by the shirt. Each sewn up in their signature plaids that are meticulously designed and loomed in limited quantities.