Featured in over nine hundred stores, a personally iconic bag, and a family were all obtained in quite a short amount of time for Rebecca Minkoff, fashion designer and creator of high end handbags, chic shoes, and fashion forward apparel. Minkoff has created quite the industry after years of dedicated work directed towards the fashion world.
At the young age of eight, Minkoff started to sew and design clothing for herself. “Officially, I guess I was eight,” she stated, “but when it became my career, I was twenty one.” However, the passion did not just spring up a career in the difference of thirteen years. Throughout just a little over a decade of time, Minkoff continued to improve her sewing skills into unique designs. Soon after she graduated high school at age eighteen, Minkoff moved from San Diego, California to New York City (NYC), New York. In 2001, Minkoff featured a small, five piece collection on The Tonight Show. This fashion forward ensemble featured an original design of the coined phrase “I love New York”. The tee became a sensation overnight, thus entering Minkoff into the world renown fashion world.
Once fashion took over her career at age twenty one, Minkoff started selling her own sewing creations. Her career flourished this way for four years. “Up until I was twenty five, anything I had sold, I made myself,” Minkoff humbly stated. However, at this point in her career, Minkoff only sewed apparel. According to her, she started by sewing apparel. She exclaimed with a giggle, “I don’t know how to sew a handbag to save my life…” Even though she could not personally make her own purse, she could design quite the bag. In 2005, Minkoff designed her iconic handbag. She entitled it The Morning After Bag (M.A.B.). Soon after the design was released, orders for her personal, sui generis handbags started piling up. Many of the demands for an encore of designs developed from the help of her brother Uri Minkoff, CEO and co-founder of her newly refined, self titled company.
After four years of fashion forward purse designs, Minkoff enveloped herself in an edgy style using leather and hardware including many studs. In 2009, with seven hundred stores featured her designs and a mere seventy three employees under her company name, Minkoff redirected her focus back to apparel. The same year, she introduced her first ready-to-wear collection. Throughout this collection, Minkoff was recognized by multiple celebrities such as Reese Witherspoon, Lauren Conrad, and Keira Knightley. As her name has built up and in parallel her audience, the audience demands appearances. Since her career exploded, Minkoff has made appearances on Good Morning America and Fox News’ Business feature. Not only does she make appearances on acclaimed televised shows, but she cares about her customers. Minkoff makes debuts at many stores carrying her products. After a number of years of shaping, Minkoff opened her first stand alone boutique in Tokyo, Japan on March 1, 2012. In 2011, she won the award of Breakthrough Designer from the Accessories council recognizing her for her marvelous industrial business.
As her business continues to expand, Minkoff desires one particular goal for her career. She desires to design a brand dedicated to the fashion forward women living a fashion forward life. Minkoff will quickly achieve her goal due to the fact she was titled the number one accessories designer in the United States. She continues to attempt to be involved not just by designing, but also by meeting fans and customers.
Not only is Minkoff devoted to her career, but she spends quite an amount of time nurturing her family. Minkoff is not only a wife to Gavin Bellour, director and actor, but also is a mother to her toddler, Luca and just months old baby girl, Bowie Lou. Her business does not set her back from expanding her family.
All of her designs bring such a contribution and edge to the fashion world. Inspiration for Minkoff’s designs are gathered from all over. “So many things…travel. I get excited about a print and then I want to do all shorts of things with it…listening to music sometimes can be inspiring to me, so I kind of get it from everywhere.” As her designs for spring 2015 debut, be sure to keep an eye out for Minkoff’s hard work and devotion to a career she started to fall in love with when she was a mere eight years old.
XOXO
Kenzie Rae
