The Designer Next Door
Certainly Victor Costa--the Dallas designer who’s suddenly a household word in very expensive households--could take on airs. But it seems unlikely he would humbly sink to his knees in public.
Yet, that’s what he did at the end of the recent Nordstrom benefit for the Assistance League of Southern California, held at the Biltmore Hotel. After the last opulent gown of his “Phantom of the Opera” finale swished down the runway, Costa came out, dropped to his knees and threw out his arms to an appreciative audience of more than 500.
Despite all the fuss made over him of late (television appearances and major stories in Newsweek and People), Costa remains Costa: the nice designer-next-door kind of guy. And despite a soaring reputation for garments that are remarkably like those of the top French designers, his prices remain reasonable: $200 to $1,000.
His new and well-publicized darling-designer status does have a sticky side. One recent press report had him sketching at a Paris fashion show, presumably so he could copy the clothes.
“Unequivocally, I don’t sketch at the shows,” Costa responds as he sits in a suite at the Biltmore, munching a piece of candy.
“I’m a living camera. Just by looking, I get the mood of those expensive clothes.”
Nor does the tall, robust designer echo everything from Europe. Christian Lacroix may have “abandoned his taffetas and poufs,” says Costa, but he hasn’t.
“I don’t think women are ready to give up the glamour. I’ve always made pretty ruffled necklines and had roses and poufs. I started when I was a bridal designer and I’ve never stopped.”
Costa’s sexy, glamorous suits, dresses and gowns for fall are selling at a brisk pace after the fashion show. An impressive number of women (often with husbands in tow) leave the event with plastic garment bags over their arms.
In a large main floor room, temporarily converted into a try-on and sales area, Costa mingles with the benefit shoppers and adds his enthusiastic comments. Sounding like a cheerleader, he tells a mother-of-the-bride who is debating a dramatic dress, “Go for it.” And she does.
He makes such personal appearances 35 times a year. It’s hard work, and in the waning hours of the Nordstrom show, Costa looks a bit frazzled and warm in his black blazer, gray flannel trousers and crest-decorated slip-on shoes.
But his enthusiasm is undaunted. This year he expects retail sales to reach $50 million, he says. For his customers--16 to 60 in age, known and unknown by name (the known include Ivana Trump, Evelyn Lauder, Betsy Bloomingdale, Joan Rivers and Brooke Shields)--he proudly states: “This season, I’ve gone all out.”
