Sully Bonnelly designer for the houses of Bill Blass and Eli Tahari before starting his own collection in 1998, retailing at Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and other stores around the globe. Later in his career, he returned to Oscar de la Renta as creative director for the O Oscar Collection. Bonnelly, a native of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, grew up with fashion being an intrinsic part of his identity.He studied architecture at UASD before moving to New York where he graduated from Parsons School of Design and began his career in fashion as Oscar de la Renta’s
Francisco Costa (designer) enrolled in a language class at Hunter College and took courses at the Fashion Institute of Technology at night. He obtained employment with Herbert Rounick, whose Seventh Avenue (Manhattan) company made dresses for Oscar de la Renta and Bill Blass. Costa went to work for de la Renta after Rounick's death, designing for the firm's Japanese licenses. Costa credits de la Renta with teaching him the most about both designing clothes and life. He remained with the company for five years. Klein's partner, Barry Schwartz, brought Costa's name to Klein's attention in 2001. Costa became the principal designer for the