New York Designer, Kobi Halperin, at Tootsies Houston for a Trunk Show/Personal Appearance for customers by day and to be the guest of honor at an evening party benefiting HAWC, Houston Area Women’s Center.
For many of us, we were familiar with the name Kobi Halperin but I must admit not totally in-the-know on much about the man. I did my research on his latest collection, his history in the business and proceeded to Tootsies to meet him for his all day trunk show and benefit appearance that evening for The Women’s Home. Wow, was I impressed with the man and his collection as was everyone at Tootsies!
About Kobi Halperin: He was born and raised in Israel, came to the U.S., New York City specifically, after finishing his studies in fashion about 20 years ago. He was the Creative Director for Elie Tahari for 13 years and Kenneth Cole for 3 years before launching his line for Fall 2015. He began his love for fashion design in Israel where he was drawing clothes as a young boy, but was unaware of his love for fashion until he shopped with his Mom for her dress for his Bar Mitzvah….you could say that that moment was the Aha! moment for him when he then knew that fashion design was what he wanted to do in life.
His philosophy is simple: He believes that everything you do as a designer should be about the customer and what will make her feel good and ‘smile’ when she is happy about how she looks. He feels it is very important to be connected to your customers, which is why he loves traveling to meet his customers and talk to them and see them transformed by his clothes. He said “the runway shows are great, but are the PR part of what I do and working with customers which I do along with my wife of 25 years and seeing their excitement is what I truly love and why I do what I do.” It is no wonder that his trunk shows, as the one recently at Tootsies, are such an overwhelming success with staggering numbers of pieces sold, which he also attributes to much fashion at a very affordable price point as well.
About his look: He feels that his clothes give women a reconnection with the finest clothing of the past. He has very definite approaches that he will and will not do with his collection…..no logos, feminine but not too sweet and garments that to the touch feel as though they could have been hand made. His inspiration for each of his 12 collections a year that he produces many times reflect his travels. For Spring 2018 the designer found optimism while visiting the Shchukin Exhibition in Paris, notably the Paul Gauguin Tahiti paintings and Henri Rousseau’s jungles. This inpsired a tropical theme for the season that also brought the designer fond memories of his first visit to America, seeing all of the bright colors of Miami intermixed with the backdrop of city life…that was the balance he wanted for his clothing.
Below are some of the highlights, showing the diversity of the collection as it sits on the Tootsies sales floor.
Houston Area Women’s Center’s Sonia Corrales, Interim President and CEO, Chau NguyenChief Marketing & Developmnt Officer, with Board Chairman, Diana Hudson
Photos by Quy Tran Photography