Isaia Rankin was on the rise in New York’s fashion industry at a time when the city was going through a creative renaissance. His contemporaries included downtown icons like Jean-Michel Basquiat and designers such as Marc Jacobs, Isabel Toledo, and Angel Estrada, all of whom were starting out then.

Isaia, as he was known, had moved to New York from Cincinnati in the late Seventies to make it in fashion – and so he did with luxe basics and form-fitted dresses that were sleek and sensual at once. Think an American Alaïa and you get the picture. Cult stores like Barneys and Charivari loved the pieces that were destined for the downtown’s new chic set.

Isaia died on June 28, 1989 at the age of 35, but he is not forgotten.