rachel roy, the wife of rocawear and roc-a-fella records founder damon dash, hit the big time by appearing on oprah on january 17. she chatted about her upbringing, moving to nyc and meeting dash, and becoming the creative director of rocawear’s womens’ line. in 2005, roy launched rachel roy, a more upscale line that was based on her fashion sensibilities.
roy has said that she loves 40s silhouettes, focusing on her curves and wearing impeccable accessories (she’s usually seen in blahnik, louboutin, and ralph lauren’s “ricky” bag). her pieces usually have “a flair for the dramatic,” and she’s inventive with evening dressing.
on oprah, she picked nine pieces from her pre-spring and spring collection, on women in a variety of ages and ethnicities. and needless to say, all the outfits looks chic, sophisticated and elegant without being stuffy.
one of the things roy embraces is her size. she creates clothes for women of all silhouettes, especially those with hourglass shapes.
“If I didn’t love the hourglass, I wouldn’t love myself,” she says. “I’m not a size 0, and I’m nowhere close to it. But, I don’t want anyone to know what I am so I like to design clothes so you don’t know what’s going on under there.”
oprah declares that she loves the blue dress above for its simplicity and sexyness.
roy started out slowly with her namesake collection and has recently branched out to larger retailers and bigger press shows. time will tell what impact the oprah appearance will have on sales, but if it’s anything like what tory burch or narciso rodriguez experienced, then roy has a hit on her hands.
rachel roy is available online at shopbop.com and net-a-porter.com
pics from oprah.com
