Nicknamed the “lumberjacks of fashion” in their debut in Vogue, Robert Tagliapietra and Jeffrey Costello 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.”

In 1994, Tagliapietra, a New York native and Parson School of Design graduate, met Costello, who had been designing clothing for downtown actresses and musicians. Having grown up around a family of tailors, the designers were taught dressmaking, tailoring and patternmaking 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 finalists for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2005 and 2006. 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.

Robert Tagliapietra has been a CFDA Member since 2006.