Known for its extravagant, theatrical exhibitions, DIFFA Dallas’ reputation precedes it. Tomorrow night, the organization will continue that tradition with the presentation of the sold-out House of DIFFA: Circo Rouge at the Omni Hotel. Ahead of the event, designers came together to create jackets that DIFFA has become known for. StyleSheet talked to a few of the designers at the event’s April 28 preview party.
Binzario Couture – Andre Yabin & Luis Nazario
The duo, who have been in Dallas for nine years, specialize in couture gowns and weddings. Wanting to expand their expertise, they aim to apply the same couture techniques for weddings to gala gowns and cocktail dresses.
What led you to create something for DIFFA?
AY: We thought it would be a great idea. We know DIFFA’s really over-the-top, and we thought it would be a great donation. We feel really strongly about the organization and donating. We’re so glad they selected us.
LN: A few years ago, we created [a jacket]. It was made out of plastic forks. They looked like feathers. It was so beautiful.
AY: It was on the runway, yeah. And, literally, we remember walking in and there was a line of people waiting to see what was going on, what was this craziness.
What inspired you to make this jacket?
AY: For this next collection, we started drawing a lot of these diamond patterns, and we thought it would be great to use some couture techniques with this jacket and with that pattern using pearls and Swarovski stones. We were also inspired by matadors, with the shoulder pads.
LN: It’s what we think is kind of interesting, that type of bolero shoulder. So it was good to incorporate something like that. And we love Spain. It’s where we’re planning on retiring at some point.
Dan & Joseph – Dan Rodriguez & Joseph Steffen
Coming from Neiman Marcus, Rodriguez and Steffen are pulling from their experiences with luxury retail in an effort to bridge the gap between design and customers.
So you guys came from Neimans. What made you want to become designers?
JS: Coming from being stylists, people would ask us for custom pieces. One of our friends was hosting a derby fundraiser and she was like, “I hate everything out there. Everything’s old. Can you make something for me.” And we absolutely loved what we did for her.
DR: And then we continued. And actually, The Joule came to us after that to do an event at Traffic. They wanted us to fill the space that they had, up in the loft.
JS: I guess it just came hand in hand. Everybody thought we were producing items all the time. We did it, and it was a success, and here we are now–each season, producing a collection.
I haven’t seen your jacket, but can you describe it to me?
DR: It’s a cape, a red and white striped cape with Mongolian lamb.
JS: It was inspired by one of the flyers for this event. We knew that we were going to do a cape, and we had originally said we were going to do a denim cape, because it’s one of the mediums we like to work with. And then when we saw the flyer, we were like, let’s do red and white stripes. And we’ve been using fur a lot in our fall collection, so we wanted something to speak to our new collection. So we did a little bit of layering.
Why did you decide to come to DIFFA?
JS: They always come to us, and we love it.
And you get to be more creative.
JS: Yes, and they give you no boundaries. They love loud, they love color here. They love everything we love. So we get to express ourselves fully.
Elle Carnley is a former DMagazine.com intern.
Binzario Couture – Andre Yabin & Luis Nazario
The duo, who have been in Dallas for nine years, specialize in couture gowns and weddings. Wanting to expand their expertise, they aim to apply the same couture techniques for weddings to gala gowns and cocktail dresses.
What led you to create something for DIFFA?
AY: We thought it would be a great idea. We know DIFFA’s really over-the-top, and we thought it would be a great donation. We feel really strongly about the organization and donating. We’re so glad they selected us.
LN: A few years ago, we created [a jacket]. It was made out of plastic forks. They looked like feathers. It was so beautiful.
AY: It was on the runway, yeah. And, literally, we remember walking in and there was a line of people waiting to see what was going on, what was this craziness.
What inspired you to make this jacket?
AY: For this next collection, we started drawing a lot of these diamond patterns, and we thought it would be great to use some couture techniques with this jacket and with that pattern using pearls and Swarovski stones. We were also inspired by matadors, with the shoulder pads.
LN: It’s what we think is kind of interesting, that type of bolero shoulder. So it was good to incorporate something like that. And we love Spain. It’s where we’re planning on retiring at some point.
Dan & Joseph – Dan Rodriguez & Joseph Steffen
Coming from Neiman Marcus, Rodriguez and Steffen are pulling from their experiences with luxury retail in an effort to bridge the gap between design and customers.
So you guys came from Neimans. What made you want to become designers?
JS: Coming from being stylists, people would ask us for custom pieces. One of our friends was hosting a derby fundraiser and she was like, “I hate everything out there. Everything’s old. Can you make something for me.” And we absolutely loved what we did for her.
DR: And then we continued. And actually, The Joule came to us after that to do an event at Traffic. They wanted us to fill the space that they had, up in the loft.
JS: I guess it just came hand in hand. Everybody thought we were producing items all the time. We did it, and it was a success, and here we are now–each season, producing a collection.
I haven’t seen your jacket, but can you describe it to me?
DR: It’s a cape, a red and white striped cape with Mongolian lamb.
JS: It was inspired by one of the flyers for this event. We knew that we were going to do a cape, and we had originally said we were going to do a denim cape, because it’s one of the mediums we like to work with. And then when we saw the flyer, we were like, let’s do red and white stripes. And we’ve been using fur a lot in our fall collection, so we wanted something to speak to our new collection. So we did a little bit of layering.
Why did you decide to come to DIFFA?
JS: They always come to us, and we love it.
And you get to be more creative.
JS: Yes, and they give you no boundaries. They love loud, they love color here. They love everything we love. So we get to express ourselves fully.
Elle Carnley is a former DMagazine.com intern.
