ROOT OF STYLE by Ruben & Isabel Toledo Book Signing

reporter: Miguel Dominguez

Isabel and Ruben Toledo

The auction house Doyle New York was the perfect place on April 11th, for the fashion super team of Ruben and Isabel Toledo to have the signing of their newest book “Roots of Style.” Since Doyle was at the time unveiling a vast collection of diamond jewelry to be auctioned, it made for a truly glittery occasion. And yet, being around Ruben and Isabel was definitely where the action was. There was a non-stop queue of eager buyers waiting to have their books signed by the creative couple, a wait made no quicker by the fact that Ruben insisted in not just signing the books, but actually doing an illustration in them. How gracious can one be!

Isabel with Doyle's Media director Louis LeB Webre

Ruben and Isabel with creative director Barry Weinbaum,
actor Vincent De Paul and multifaceted artist Barbara Camp

Born in 1961 in Cuba and transplanted to New Jersey where she attended high school and met her future husband and collaborator, Ruben Toledo, Isabel Toledo attended the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design in New York, where she studied fashion design.Best known as the designer who created Michelle Obama’s inauguration outfit, Isabel presented her first collection in 1985. In 2006, after more than twenty years of working solo, Isabel was named creative director of Anne Klein . She made her fashion debut with Anne Klein at New York Fashion Week in February 2007, and on that same year she went on her own again.Isabel was the recipient of the Cooper-Hewitt Design Award with her husband, Ruben Toledo, for their work in fashion in 2005. On September 3, 2008 Isabel Toledo was the third recipient of The Couture Council Artistry of Fashion Award, from the Museum at FIT.

Isabel and Ruben flank avid couture collector Sandy Schreier,
smugly bagging her signed book

Isabel and Ruben with 70s Supermodel Debbie Dickinson and Julius DeBruhl Lewis

Ruben Toledo was born in 1961 in Havana, Cuba. A painter, sculptor, illustrator, fashion chronicler and critic, and surrealist, he has designed mannequins, store windows, award statuettes, scarves, fabrics, dishes and carpets. He has also painted murals, portraits, album covers and barns, plus illustrations for magazines such as The New Yorker, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country, Paper, Visionaire, Interview and The New York Times. Additionally, he’s done the illustrations for Nordstrom’s national ad campaign. Ruben’s work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He authored “Style Dictionary,” a collection of drawings and watercolors. He ’s also made an animated history of French fashion entitled Fashionation. A book and an exhibition in The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, titled Toledo/Toledo: A Marriage of Art and Fashion, came about from his collaboration with Isabel.

Nico Ravitch with Doyle's art director Charlotte A. Taylor

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