At the National Arts Club last Friday, the CFDA and Editorial and Communications Director Marc Karimzadeh welcomed Rebecca Moses into the salon for a reflective – and highly inspiring – discussion.
After studying at F.I.T. and a stint working for Gallant, which had the license for Pierre Cardin coats and suits, Moses started her own line out of a loft with a table that her father built. Fast-forward through 10 years of hard work on her label, and a second stint across the Atlantic was about to begin. A game-changing chief creative role at iconic Italian label Genny catapulted Moses to international acclaim, while an eventual move back to the U.S. allowed her to pursue creativity in multiple veins, including fine art and a period of magazine illustration for Vogue and other titles.
A CFDA member for close to four decades, the visionary designer and artistic force continues to push boundaries, blending fashion, art, and design in a way that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant.
The audience included John Bartlett, Yeohlee Teng, Nancy Chilton, Dustin Pittman, Freddie Leiba, Nicole Fischelis, and Anthony Thomas Galante, as Moses discussed the road to success; challenges, failures and losses, and the importance of risk-taking.
What did you learn from your early experiences in New York?
That was my Master’s and first Doctorate [laughs]. It was my first 10 years learning how to survive and produce my own product. One of my funniest memories in my loft was hosting Eleanor Lambert. Essentially, she created syndicated journalism for the fashion world, and if she wrote an article about you and syndicated it, you became a household name. She was a powerhouse, and she came up to the loft. As I showed her the collection, a giant roach came across the table, and I just remember thinking ‘maybe she doesn’t see it’ and swiping it with a piece of paper. She says to me, “Oh darling, we have those in my Park Avenue apartment,” and she wrote the article! It began with something like, “It was like a scene out of La Bohème…,” and it was.
When did you move to Italy, and how did the next stage of your career begin?
In 1991, I met the love of my life – I was in Italy on business, and I met this wonderful man. I had been doing business with him, and we just fell in love. I decided to go to Italy, and it was the best decision of my life. One day, the very iconic Joyce Ma, the founder of the JOYCE stores in Hong Kong and an epic retailer, came to visit my studio there. She saw my sketches and she took them. The next day I got a phone call, and was told “You have to come down to Milano and meet Signora Girombelli” and I said to myself, who is this? We weren’t living with the internet at the time. When I arrived, she took me to the showroom where the brand Genny was being designed – a huge line in Italy designed by Gianni Versace at the time – and I said, “What I do is so different from what you have here!” and she said, “It is time for me to change.” She asked me to do a capsule collection after that. A few months went by and I got a phone call from the product manager saying, “Rebecca, Miss Girombelli would like to speak with you. She wants you to take over the whole collection.”
What was the experience of your time at Genny like?
This was the major leagues – Milano in the Nineties. If they wanted Naomi [Campbell] for a show, for example, it was no problem. You know, crazy things. We could write a book just on those five years and the big, glamorous productions. These were million dollar shows. Real glamour. It was what I dreamed of, but I’d never realized it could actually happen like that. The first show was a shocker for the audience and the retailers. It was a hard road after that, because the retailers weren’t sure that their customers could change that quickly. Going to work in Italy wasn’t just about learning about style, it was understanding the culture. It was so different. Signora Girombelli gave me the most amazing opportunity of my life and exposed me to work rooms that were legendary.
Can you tell us about coming back to New York and exploring your artistic side?
Franca Sozzani had given me the advice: ‘Rebecca, you have designed enough clothes in your life. What are you going to do? You’re an artist. Go explore the part of you that needs to be explored.’ And I did that. Vogue.com was starting then, and I started illustrating stories for Vogue. Then, other magazines started asking me to do stories. I started looking at life through a different lens. It was a little frightening, a little intimidating.
At the end of the day, I’m a storyteller. Whether it’s been through putting together a fashion collection, or products for the home, or eyeglasses, you always have to tell a story. Now, I just really like to find new categories to tell my stories in. The paintings I make especially – they’re all about the uniqueness of being and the women that inspire me, both real and in my subconscious. I’ve done about 12 shows in the last 15 years. I’m always looking ahead and thinking about what’s next. My creative energy is stronger than ever.
If you’re fearless, and not afraid to do something for the first time, you can do it.
