Barbara Tfank
Barbara Tfank is an American fashion designer, best known for designing the lavender Prada gown worn by Uma Thurman at the 67th Academy Awards.
Career
A native of New York, Tfank is a graduate of Skidmore College and holds a masters from Stanford University.[1] She apprenticed with designer Sal Cesarani and worked as a costume designer for films,[2] including A Midnight Clear and Dream Lover.
She also worked as a stylist for Avedon, for Japanese TV [3] and as a design consultant for Prada. During her time with Prada, she designed the lavender dress that Uma Thurman wore at the 67th Academy Awards in 1995.[4]
Tfank started her own design line with a collection for Barneys in 2001. Since 2006, Tfank has shown her designs at New York Fashion Week; she has also shown at Houston Fashion Week.[5] She regularly collaborates with shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, sagafurs, and Shiseido.
Tfank’s high-profile clients include First Lady Michelle Obama,[6] who wore a Tfank dress to meet Queen Elizabeth II on the Obamas’ official visit to the UK in 2011 and for the 2012 State of the Union Address, fashion writer Tatiana Hambro,[7] who wore a custom Tfank dress for her wedding, and singer Adele,[8][9] who wore Barbara Tfank to the 2009 Grammys and the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards.
1995 Oscar dress
While working as a design consultant for Prada, Tfank was responsible for designing the lavender or lilac-colored Prada dress worn by Uma Thurman at the 67th Academy Awards on March 27, 1995. Bronwyn Cosgrave in her book Made for each other: fashion and the Academy Awards describes the dress as being beautifully crafted and admired for weeks afterwards by the media.[10] The book Fashion: the century of the designer 1900-1999 credits the dress for opening up Prada in Hollywood saying, "...Uma Thurman appeared at the ceremony in a lavender gown and stole, catapulting herself onto magazine covers and bringing Prada to the attention of Hollywood."[11][12] Variety magazine's Complete Book of Oscar Fashion described it as "the gown that launched a thousand imitations"; and indeed, a year later, Nicole Kidman wore a Prada dress of an identical colour at the 68th Academy Awards.[13][14]
References
- ^ Barbara Tfank Biography - ARTISTdirect Movies and DVDs
- ^ Barbara Tfank - IMDb
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-12-01. Retrieved 2012-01-28.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Top 10 Oscar Looks
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-02-09. Retrieved 2012-01-28.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Home - Mrs.O - Follow the Fashion and Style of First Lady Michelle Obama
- ^ https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/the-bride-wore-a-victorian-tiara-for-her-fairytale-wedding-in-the-cotswolds
- ^ Barbara Tfank | British Vogue
- ^ http://www.vogue.co.uk/spy/celebrity-photos/2011/08/23/adele-style-file/gallery#/image/5
- ^ Cosgrave, Bronwyn (15 December 2006). Made for each other: fashion and the Academy Awards. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 253. ISBN 978-1-59691-087-4. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
- ^ Seeling, Charlotte (April 2000). Fashion: the century of the designer 1900-1999. Könemann. p. 192. ISBN 978-3-8290-2980-3. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
- ^ "Ten dresses you'll never forget". CNN. 27 October 2011. Retrieved 2015-05-01.
- ^ Reeve., Chace (2003). The complete book of Oscar fashion : Variety's 75 years of glamour on the red carpet. New York, NY: Reed Press. p. 48. ISBN 1594290016. OCLC 53233868.
- ^ Cosgrave, Bronwyn (15 December 2006). Made for each other: fashion and the Academy Awards. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 222. ISBN 978-1-59691-087-4. Retrieved 24 May 2011.