HI/LO
Inside the designer’s lair: James Coviello is Anna Sui’s knitwear designer. Coviello is good with his hands – he’s a self-taught milliner and former assistant at jeweler Erickson Beamon – and is just about to launch his own collection of vintage-fabric reversible tote bags. Oh, and he’s about 15 seasons into showing his eponymous label, which is stocked in boutiques all over the country.
What sets Coviello apart from so many of the stuck-in-the-’90s designers eking out a living en masse in this putrid economy is his quietly luxurious, charmingly subversive 19th-century aesthetic choices – like elaborate print-on-print combinations, hand embroidery from India, and diaphanous velvet gowns.
“This season, I was looking at designers from the Viennese arts and crafts movement – a broad range, including architects, print designers, furniture designers,” Coviello told The Post when we visited his organized-chaotic, classically designed studio space in the Garment District.
“My customer is a woman who’s comfortable in her own skin, has a very visceral connection to clothing,” he says. “She’s a woman who sees my clothing and it automatically makes her feel like, ‘This is how I want to look.’ “
Check out blogs.nypost.com/hilo to get an insider’s peek inside James Coviello’s workspace – as well as photos from the Thuy studio and a quick visit with celeb-and-socialite-beloved designer Alvin Valley.
