Rodarte

The sisters Mulleavy of Pasadena, California, have the kind of symbiotic quality and private shorthand (casually deploying the collective “we” and “us”) commonly associated with twins, which they are not—at least not technically. Kate, born in 1979, is Laura’s elder by a year and a half, but the girls, born to a botanist father and artist mother, grew up inseparable in Northern California and both landed at Berkeley, where they studied literature (Laura) and art history (Kate). Steeped in traditions of drama and romance, nature and art—themes that appear again and again in their work—the two returned to their parents’ house in 2005 and created their first collection of intricately wrought dresses and coats under the name Rodarte, culled from their mother’s maiden name. It was an awesome hit, and Rodarte has since piled up a powerful following of editors, celebrities and institutions of fashion: Anna Wintour has put their frocks on the cover of Vogue; Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton are among the actresses they’ve dressed; and their designs can be found in the permanent collection of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2009, they won the CFDA award for Womenswear Designer of the Year. The Mulleavys recently had their first solo exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, and they designed costumes for Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming film, Black Swan. View additional work credits on MyFDB.

Photo by Autumn de Wilde, 2010