Fashion designer Edwing D’Angelo has come a long way since we featured him in the summer 2003 issue of BCAM (“The American Dream at Work”). Back then he was putting his BBA in international marketing to good use running his Harlem boutique and launching his career as a creator of glamorous clothes geared mainly to young African Americans and Latinos. At the time, he did a brisk business in prom dresses.
Today D’Angelo has both a high-profile retail shop in the Limelight Marketplace (housed in a former church and disco on Sixth Avenue) and an impressive roster of celebrities who wear his clothes, including Patti LaBelle, Laurie Metcalf, Lil’ Kim, Vivica A. Fox, Sean Paul, Wynonna Judd, and Sanaa Lathan. Recently Woody Harrelson purchased clothes for a masquerade costume—16th-century aristocrat Edward de Vere—at D’Angelo’s boutique.
One of the designer’s most prominent clients—and biggest fans—is Tyra Banks, host of TV’s America’s Next Top Model and her eponymous talk show. The former model donned a D’Angelo outfit to the CW’s Upfront—the event at which networks unveil their upcoming fall schedules—at Lincoln Center this past May. The outfit, suspendered, high-waisted trousers over a button-down shirt, drew much comment in the fashion media, further burnishing the designer’s reputation. Banks, known for supporting young designers, subsequently purchased several of D’Angelo’s menswear-inspired looks.
—Marina Zogbi