HERVE LEGER FASHION

New York — Part Of The Fun Of Watching The Herve Leger Runway Show Every Season Is Observing How Designers Max And Lubov Azria Come Up With So Many Different Variations Of The Basic Bandage Dress.

Since Acquiring The French Brand And Presenting Collections On New York Runways Since 2008, The Azrias Have Displayed Their Inventiveness In Creating New, Eye-Catching Ways To Accent a Dress That Hugs The Body Like a Sausage Casing.

"It Really Is The Same Dress Over And Over Again. But They Have Found Ways To Add Something New To It," Celebrity Stylist Phillip Bloch Told Culturemap Before The Azrias Unveiled Their Fall Herve Leger Collection Before a Packed Audience At Lincoln Center.

Bloch Recalled That He And Deceased Designer L'Wren Scott Were The First To Showcase The Brand In Hollywood Back When Designer Herve Leroux First Introduced The Bandage Dress In The Mid '80s.

"(L'Wren) Would Get Them For Cindy Crawford And I Would Get Them For Fran Drescher. Fran Wore Them a Lot. They Were The First Two Celebrities Wearing Herve In La. We Did a Famous Shot Of Fran Where She Wore This White One, And We Did All The Flowers In Her Hair, That Was An Amazing One," Bloch Says.

Now The Dresses Are So Popular, Bloch Says, That They Have a Tag That's Like a Tail On The Inside Of The Back Side Of The Dress, So That It Has To Be Cut Off Prior To Wearing It. Before That, Customers Would Buy The Dress, Wear It To a Club And Then Return It The Next Day. "If You Take The Tag Off, You Keep The Dress," Bloch Says.

For Fall, The Azrias Have Added Padded Shoulders And See-Through Inserts In Some Looks While Others Are Heavily Beaded In Colorful Patterns Inspired By The Antoni Gaudi's Spectacular Basilica De La Sagrada Familia In Barcelona. Textured Jacquards Are Inspired By The Cathedrals Stained-Glass Windows And Celestial Ceilings While Heavily Studded Beadwork Evokes Soaring Arches And Warm Sunrays.

The Duo Added Lamb Boleros And Beaded Bomber Jackets To Accent The Look, But The Dresses Are Just As Form Fitting As Ever.

Backstage Before The Show Began, Max Azria Noted That The Collection Consists Almost Exclusively Of Short Dresses (Only One Look Features Slacks). "I Love The Colors And The Prints," He Said. "We Respect The Feeling Of This Woman; She's Very Sexy But Is Proud Of What She Has Achieved."

His Company, Which Also Includes Bcbgmaxazria And Bcbg Generation, Has Had Some Financial Difficulties, But a Recent $135 Million Cash Infusion By Investors Has Put It On Firmer Financial Footing. Azria Dismissed Concerns, Saying The Company Plans To Go "Higher And Higher."

He Certainly Seems To Have a Loyal Following For Herve Leger Bandage Dress, As Many Guests In The Audience Wore Latest Variations Of The Bandage Dress.

"They Fit Like a Glove And They Look Beautiful On Most Women. I Love Them," Said Jaine Jackson, Who Traveled From Dallas To Attended Her First Fashion Show And Wore In a Low-Cut, Fringed Bandage Dress That Accented Her Curves.

HERVE LEGER ONCE

Fashion Designer Herve Leroux — The Man Who Launched The Celebrity-Beloved Label Herve Leger Dress  And Its Iconic Bandage Dresses — Has Died.

His Death, At Age 60, Was Announced Today By The Federation De La Haute Couture Et De La Mode, According To Wwd.

The Cause Of Death Is Has Not Yet Been Confirmed, Though a Source Reported That His Passing Was Unexpected。

Leroux Is Most Famous For His Iconic Bandage Dresses, Which Are Beloved By The Fashion Crowd And Much Of Hollywood.

He Invented The Tight, Figure-Hugging Silhouette — Made Up Of 'Bandage' Style Strips Of Cloth That Wrap Around The Body — In The '90s, And It Quickly Became His Signature.

Kim Kardashian, Gisele Bundchen, Miranda Kerr, Beyonce, Rihanna, Sofia Vergara, Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey, Victoria Beckham, And Meghan Fox Have All Worn His Designs.

Long Before He Found Fame, Leroux Was Born Herve Leger On May 30, 1957 In Bapaume In Northern France. He Studied Sculpture At The Ecole Nationale Superieure Des Beaux Arts In Paris Before Becoming a Hairstylist.

He Was Never Far From Fashion, Though. He Was Styling Hair For a Chloe Fashion Show When He Decided To Segue Into Designing, First Taking Up Making Hats And Bags.

He Met Chanel Designer Karl Lagerfeld In 1980, And The Elder Designer Hired Him To Work At Fendi. He Later Followed Lagerfeld To Chanel.

Leroux Also Spent Time Working For Lanvin Haute Couture And Diane Von Furstenberg.

In 1986, He Launched His Own Eponymous Label, Herve Leger, Under Which He Started Making His Bandage Dresses.

'The Story Of The Dress Is a Very Simple One,' He Said, According To Style.Com And The Fashion Spot. 'Before I Started Making Clothes I Was a Hairdresser, Then a Hatmaker. One Day In a Factory I Found Some Bands That Were Headed For The Garbage. They Gave Me The Idea Of Taking Those Bands And Putting Them Next To One Another As One Does Making a Hat.'

Leroux Continued Making His Celeb-Beloved Designs Under The Name Herve Leger Until 1999, When Bcbg Max Azria Bought The Brand. In 2006, It Was Renamed Herve Leger Bandage Dresses By Max Azria.

Leroux Lost The Rights To Use His Name, And Changed It With Help From Lagerfeld.

'He Told Me, "Call Yourself Leroux Because Your Hair Is Red — Not As Red As It Was, Because You Are Older — But Anyway It Works, And Everyone Will Know Who You Are,"' He Said.

He Went On To Work As Creative Director Of Guy Laroche From 2004 To 2006, And Later Debuted a New Line Under The Name Leroux.

HERVE LEGER DRESS

In The Pantheon Of Famous Dresses, You'd Have The Lbd, The Wedding Gown, The Wrapdress, And, Residing At The Absolute Sexiest End Of The Hall, The Bandage Dress. The Figure-Hugging Style Basically Ushered In The Term "Body-Con" And Has Had a Sexiest Who's-Who List Wearing It Since The First Style Was Introduced By Designer Herve L. Leroux In The Early 90s. If You'Re Thinking About Another Designer Named Herve, Hold Please: Leroux And Leger Are One And The Same. The Original Bandage Dress Creator Was Christened Herve Peugnet, But The Name Was Deemed Clunky By Karl Lagerfeld After The Young Designer Went To Work For Him At Fendi. He Adopted Leger At Lagerfeld's Suggestion And Kept It When He Went On To Start His Own Label. When Max Azria Acquired The Brand In The Late '90s, Leger Took Up The Surname Herve Leger Dresses For The New Label He Started In 2000.

But Back To Pre-Azria Bandage Dresses. A New York Times Runway Review, Published In 1993, Calls Leger's Speciality "Elastic Strips Of Fabric Sewn Together To Make Girdle-Tight Dresses." The Piece Also Reveals That His Brand Received Financing From The Bronfmans, The Powerhouse Family Who Made Their Fortune Via Seagrams And Counts Dj/All-Around Cool Girl Hannah Bronfman As The New Generation.

The Original Runway Pieces From Leger Share Similar Dna With What You See Produced Presently, Though The Bandage Style Was Mixed In With Less Body-Con Pieces, Including The Midi Skirts Worn On The Runway By Karen Mulder, Cindy Crawford, And Eva Herzigova In The Fall Of 1995.

Along With Being One Of The Models Sporting The Design On The Runway, Crawford Also Repped The Bandage Dress For Events Off The Runway. For a Vogue Anniversary Party In 1998, She Did The Lbd Version.

The Fact That The Brand Wasn't Originally Known Exclusively For Bandage Dresses Was Something Understood By Max Azria And Co. When The Company Acquired The Name In 1998. "When Leger Was Designing, He Only Used One Size Of Bandage. When You Look At The Archive, There's a Lot Of Woven, He Did Suiting, He Did Gowns," Lubov Azria, Chief Creative Officer Of Bcbg Max Azria Group, Told Glamour. "Bandage Was Only a Small Part Of It, But It Was What Got The Most Attention So We Realized That's The Essence Of Herve."

The Company Worked With Leger Himself For About a Year Before Looking For New Designers. When No One Quite Right For The Job Was Found, It Moved In-House, Staying Dormant For About Five Years While The Team Worked To Understand What Was Behind The Magical Bandage Look.

Lubov And Max Azria

"I Didn't Want To Launch Until I Truly Understood The Whole Idea. A Bandage Dress Isn't a Woven, It's All Knitted On a Knitting Machine And Is a Completely Different Concept," Azria Explained. "People Assume It's Cut-And-Sew, But There's No Cutting. It's Knitted In a Panel And Then Attached. To Understand The Process And Technical Aside Took a While, And We Wanted To Make Sure It Would Be Unique In The Market."

Those Archives She Mentioned Have Been Somewhat Of a Labor Of Love, With The Company Chief Digging Deep To Stock The Racks; The Back Catalog That Came With The Brand Wasn't The Creme De La Creme, With The Best Items Having Disappeared Beforehand.

"The Pieces That Were Truly Iconic Were Given Away Or Taken By Someone, So I Had To Buy Them Back From Ebay And Private Parties," Lubov Revealed To Us. "We Actually Printed Out Every Runway Show He Did And Matched The Pieces That We Had In Our Vintage Library And Figured Out What Was Missing. We Went On Ebay And Found Some Of Them, They Were Like 400 Euros, And We'd Go To The Collectors, Like Resurrection. Those Were Like $1,400, But Sometimes We'd Bargain Or Do Trades. Then I Found Somebody In Paris Who Was The Muse Of Herve Leger Sale. She Had Tons Of Them And Was Willing To Part With Them—She Was In Her 70s."