Mulleavy sisters designed ballet costumes for Black Swan, released today
Today sees the release of the highly anticipated Black Swan. Darren Aronofsky's thriller tells a story of a ballet dancer (Natalie Portman) who wins the lead role in Swan Lake, however, things start to turn nasty as she becomes more like the White Swan's twin, the Black Swan.
Kate and Laura Mulleavy, for the past six years have gained the recognition that they deserve, from their fashion line Rodarte, named from their mother's maiden name.
With no formal training in design the pair stu
died art history and literature they graduated from the University of California in 2001. They gathered the money for the collection, after cancelling a trip to Italy and and then selling Kate's records. This money was used to fund their first foray into the fashion industry, they created 10 pieces and travelled to New York in the hope of gaining some recognition.
It didn't take long for their designs to start making a buzz, Women's Wear Daily featured them on the cover and a couple of weeks later, they receive the Holy Grail of phone calls telling them that Editor in chief of US Vogue, Anna Wintour wanted to meet them.
When you consider that they spent the year after graduating, watching scary movies, and doing not much else, this indicates that designing is what they were born to do.
For the past six years they have managed to cement themselves amongst the elite, and create collections that are coveted season after season.
There most famous to date has to be Fall 2008, the spider web tights will go down in history.
Designing the costumes for the film Black Swan, seems like such a natural extension for the duo. It was Portman who introduced them to the director Aronofsky, she has worked with them before after they designed her dress for the première of The Other Boleyn Girl.(Left, Portman wearing Rodarte to premiére of Black Swan)
Another famous friend of the pair is Kirsten Dunst, who often wears there designs on the red carpet. They also attended the CFDA Awards 2009 together, Dunst wearing one of their designs (above), obviously.
The Mulleavy's have also proved their fashion worth, by designing lines for Gap and Target. They have joined a whole host of greats like Karl Lagerfeld, Alber Elbaz and Stella McCartney in creating lines for high street stores.
It has now been reported that the sisters won't receive the recognition for their work on Black Swan, but the front credited costume designer Amy Wescott will, rumours have been surfacing that they will receive a Oscar nomination fo
r their designs, but unfortunately they hadn't negotiated credits in the original deal.
They are now members of the Costume Design Guild, which hints at the idea that they be interested in working on more film costumes.
In February 2012 they will introduce their first West Coast museum exhibition at the Museum for Contemporary Art, in Los Angeles.
We can only expect bigger and better things from the duo, who insist that their sibling relationship is critical to their success. I myself believe it may have something to do, with the intricate detailing and couture like qualities their designs have.
Femalefirst Taryn Davies