Christopher De Gabriele

spring 2011 collection // fall/winter 2011 collection // spring 2010 collection // bio // resume // contact // press

Christopher De Gabriele was born in London on March 8th 1982 as the youngest of three children. He studied at the Salvatorian College until the age of sixteen and went on to complete his A-levels in art and business studies at St. Dominics, Harrow on the Hill. Christopher then finished a foundation art year at West Herts College. In 2006 Christopher completed an honours degree in Fashion Design at Middlesex University, one of the top fashion universities in the United Kingdom.

Christopher interned with Vivienne Westwood throughout the entirety of his degree. It was here that he developed his pattern making skills and sewing techniques. He also played important roles in the production of her shows in Paris over several years. Vivienne inspired Christopher to develop his own sense of style, appreciation for fine tailoring, and cemented his attraction to haute couture design. Christopher interned briefly with Julien MacDonald in London before moving to Amsterdam where he began a lengthy internship with Viktor and Rolf where he was introduced to the idea of developing each collection around intellectual concepts.

During Christopher’s internship with Viktor and Rolf he was approached by up and coming Dutch contemporary designer Darryl van Wouw to take on a role as Head Designer. Christopher spent four seasons with Darryl, including six months working in China. Christopher represented Daryl at the Bread and Butter tradeshows in Barcelona, his work for Darryl was shown at Amsterdam Fashion Week, and was regularly featured in various European fashion magazines.

In 2008 Chris moved to New York to further pursue the development of his career, working with Zac Posen. Posen is a very different designer to Westwood and Viktor and Rolf and introduced Chris to sexy, glamorous high-end eveningwear.

In 2009, with several years experience working together with some of the top designers in the industry Christopher set out to create his own line of distinct clothing.