Atelier Nicolas Caito is the premier patternmaking studio in New York City. By offering a singular level of craftsmanship, Caito works with designers from concept, through fittings, alterations, sample-making and production. His technical expertise has enabled him to transcend the traditional rules of patternmaking and assist designers in creating daring, experimental, and challenging clothes. Whether the project requires precision-like tailoring, fluid volume, or intricate draping, Nicolas' vast experience and attention to detail help him to assist designers in their creative process. Also available for special projects, like wedding dresses, special occasion gowns and custom garments, Atelier Nicolas Caito has garnered a reputation for creating exquisite works of art. A native of France, Caito trained at Lanvin. He also worked at Hermes and at Rochas. In 2005, Nicolas Caito moved to New York City and established his own atelier, quickly becoming part of the city's fashion community.
With such an impressive background and talent, Nicolas Caito has easily become a key figure for American designers. He has brought a piece of Parisian haute couture in New York - extreme attention to details, to cuts, lines and volumes, and to fabrics: "Respecting the materials and fabrics is the most important thing.
That’s the difference between couture and ready-to-wear. Couture is more about the designer's fantasy, whereas ready-to-wear is about balancing beauty with practicality. To get that balance, you truly have to understand the materials you are working with."
-VOGUE ITALY ITALY VOGUE
Calvin Klein
Client List Adeam
Peter Som
Araks
Prabal Gurung
Calvin Klein
Proenza Schouler
Creatures of the Wind
Ralph Lauren
Hugo Boss
Rosie Assoulin
J Mendel
Thakoon
Jason Wu
The Row
Jonathan Cohen
Wes Gordon
Meden
Zac Posen
Designers such as Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez (of Proenza Schouler), Thakoon Panichgul, and Peter Som have turned to a French expat to help them realize their visions of new American couture. The patternmaker Nicolas Caito set up his atelier in Lower Manhattan. Similar to architects, fashion designers work from sketches. Patternmakers are their engineers, transforming intricate drawing into three-dimensional garments. The process begins with the patternmaker piecing together a patchwork of fabrics onto a dress form. These are then worked into a muslin sample that, once perfected, becomes a blueprint for the production of the garment. It's painstaking work, requiring an eye for precision understanding of the properties and possibilities of every swatch of material. "In Paris," says the 38-year-old Caito, "the designer is like god. And your goal is to please his every whim and to create a garment as close to the sketch as possible." Now Caito manages to do just that for his New York clients.
“ Patternmakers are their engineers, transforming intricate drawing into threedimensional garments.�
- DEPARTURES MAGAZINE
BEHIND THE SCENES Before the start of fashion week, Nicolas Caito is kneeling at the waist Poiret-inspired dress in Thakoon Panichgul downtown studio. Panichgul is known for his consummate attention to volume, but the pockets he's created for this particular piece are problematic - their weight is collapsing the silhouette. Panichgul, his design assistants, and various other helpers hover tensely nearby as Caito deftly performs a series of intricate gatherings, pinning and repinning the blue duchesse satin. The verdict? They decide to leave off pockets and extend the hemline, achieving the
exact balance between tailoring and flow that Panichgul had in mind. Throughout the week, Caito will work similar magic for a select number of hot young designers. One day later, he saves the day at Peter Som, making eleventhhour tweaks on the ziggurat-like folds of a showstopping gown. And when Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler want some changes made to their series of flapper-style pleated chiffon dresses, Caito arrives at their Chinatown studio in a flash. "Nicolas is a consummate artist," McCollough says.
- ELLE MAGAZINE
R U N W A Y
CALVIN KLEIN
PRABAL GURUNG
THE ROW
PROENZA SCHOULER
RALPH LAUREN
J MENDEL
C E L E B R I T I E S
B R I D A L
ELLE FASHION REPORTER Nicolas Caito, New York's premier patternmaker, is transforming American fashion one stitch at a time.
Many in the design world are crediting Caito with bringing a new level of technical craftsmanship to American fashion. Just a few short seasons ago, daring experiments in draping and fastidious attention to finish were rarely seen outside of Paris and Milan. Now, in just a few short season, European-style artisanship and its resulting high level of luxury have become ubiquitous on this side of the Atlantic as well. Caito is the one to thank. "Working with Nicolas is a very organic process," Panichgul says, directing Caito toward a dramatic black coq-feather dress, half assembled on a dummy in the corner of the designer's
studio (the feathers had just been flown in from the couture house LĂŠmarie, which is owned by Chanel). This season, Caito says the major challenge he and Panichgul faced was shaping materials that were light enough to float across the hips but heavy enough to maintain their volume. Which is why, when Peter Som wanted to created a snail like ripple in the center of a cocktail dress for fall, he, too, called upon Caito, this time to help grapple with the twisted seams. "I realized we had to bias-cut the fabric to get the shape of the wave that Peter had in his sketches," Caito says, pointing out that in today's age of cheap copycat couture, the designer's commitment to artisanal detail is rare. "Society shows people they
can become rich and famous fast so they don't want to go through any trouble." It's a notion that Caito finds enormously problematic, so much so that he imagines opening a school in New York to train a future generation of patternmakers. But when asked if he ever dreams of stepping out from behind the scenes and becoming a designer himself, he quickly dismisses the idea. "I'm not a designer. My job is to give life to designers' sketches and to help them go as far as they can with their creation-to be really free. I am basically their hands."
- JENNY FELDMAN
Contact 100 Chambers St. #5 New York, NY 10007 Tel. 212 964 0242 www.nicolascaito.com Email: info@nicolascaito.com