Toledo will receive the award posthumously, accepted by her husband Ruben.
My job is to make wearable clothes.
Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, who is wearing Isabel Toledo, at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration.
Isabel Toledo and Lily Cole, photographed by Kadel Greg,Vogue, November 2005
I admire her technique, her individuality, and her incredible eye.
Her clothes are always right.
The exhibition was the first posthumous show of Isabels work stateside.
Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, who is wearing Isabel Toledo, at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration.
Read through as Ruben offers a primer on Isabel.
Installation view of Isabel Toledo: A Love Letter.
On Intimacy
This is an incredible piece that we never got to show.
Installation view of “Isabel Toledo: A Love Letter.”
Its embroidered lace, and its actually embroidered three times in three different colors.
Isabel loved clothes that had structure, but she also loved lightness.
She liked things that could just blow in the wind.
Installation view of “Isabel Toledo: A Love Letter.”
I think the key word is intimacy.
The amount of details she put in the clothes, it wasnt about decoration, it was about revelation.
On Volume
This one was a prototype for something Michelle Obama ended up wearing.
Installation view of “Isabel Toledo: A Love Letter.”
She loved discovering old machinery that was kind of obsolete.
It was used for underwear and for corsetry, but here shes basically creating her own lace.
On Having a Personality
This is a jersey packing dress.
Installation view of “Isabel Toledo: A Love Letter.”
She called them so because theyre the simplest, lightest, and easiest to take with you.
After this, she moved on to using silk, silk gazar, and more architectural fabrics.
She loved women who had a personality to put into the clothes.
Installation view of “Isabel Toledo: A Love Letter.”
She used to say her clothes werent complete until someone wore them.
On Ideas
Isabel had an antenna for what would come, and she loved to explore.
We proved that many times over, but these drippy dresses are an example of it.
Installation view of “Isabel Toledo: A Love Letter.”
She was tailoring jersey, at one point, right when everyone was discovering it.
Thats what you learn, that time runs out on life, I found out the hard way.
It never got produced, but its an easy piece that Isabel wore and loved.
Installation view of “Isabel Toledo: A Love Letter.”
It looks like the torso is a cape, but its a jacket with sleeves.
She was always very practical, too, and did not like things falling off her body.
Isabel loved the body, and loved shape, and was unafraid of it.
Courtesy of SCAD
The receptivity to your ideas is something we always thought was important as artists.
Fashion is a cross-pollination of different mediums and interests and cultures and ideas.
On Pragmatism and American Sportswear
She loved jumpsuits and she loved work clothing.
To her, the versatility of it was so American, which is what she loved.
But that was her magic touch, and what made her very unique.
She combined American serviceability and logic with identity and uniqueness and personality.
She wanted her clothes to outlive her, and sadly they did.
But maybe thats not entirely sad, after all.
