BCBG

BCBG
Bon Chic, Bon Genre

BCBG Max Azria

from nymag.com

The Label

In the last sixteen years, Max Azria has added fifteen brands—including BCBGirls, To The Max, and Hervé Léger, which he acquired in 1999—to his BCBG empire (named by his wife, Lubova, for the French phrase bon chic, bon genre—Parisian slang for “good style, good attitude"). And just this year he showed his first collection under his name alone. Although the “exclusive” new Max Azria Collection is carried in only a small fraction of his 340 worldwide boutiques, its undone linens, ruffled faille, and loosey-goosey shirt dresses received a tepid reception compared to the more familiar (and playful) embroidered linen frocks and slinky silk dresses in the spring 2007 BCBG line.

The Look

A master of distilling everything cute and wearable in seasonal trends—be it wistful baby-doll dresses in 1989, suede and layered tulle skirts in 2000, or origami-treated pieces in his past two collections—Azria puts out nearly 4,000 styles per year.

The Designer

Born in Tunisia in 1948, Azria moved to Paris as a teenager to study acting but ended up designing womenswear. Upon moving to the States, he started a concept store called Jess, selling his own affordable French fashions to Hollywood starlets before launching BCBG in 1989, which has expanded into shoes, handbags, sunglasses, swimwear, a line of fragrance, and menswear.