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A merican Made B EAUT Y & S T Y L E
Whit 2014 STYLE WINNER
Whitney Pozgay New York City whit-ny.com
Whit is a contemporary womenswear brand that celebrates individual style and strives to promote a creative lifestyle.
A Sharp Whit Fashion designer Whitney Pozgay isn’t just making beautiful women’s clothing with modern art as its inspiration. By keeping her design and production in New York City, she’s also playing a part in the revival of Manhattan’s ailing Garment District. PHOTOGRAPHS BY JASON FRANK ROTHENBERG
MOST DESIGNERS start their collections with a silhouette—an A-line, a sheath, an iconic wrap dress—and only later flesh out the look with color, patterns, and textures. Up-andcomer Whitney Pozgay is making a name in womenswear by turning that process on its head. “What makes us unique is that we start with the prints and work from there,” she says. And not just any prints: She commissions them from fine artists whose work she admires. The result is a wearable gallery of sorts, one that uses the female form as a canvas. Pozgay’s unusual method springs first and foremost from her lifelong love affair with the art world, a passion she
shares with her husband and business partner, former painter Parker Argote. While she was learning the ropes of the fashion trade a decade ago, first with Kate Spade and later with Steven Alan, Pozgay and her husband frequented gallery openings and cultivated friendships with artists. They even managed to bridge their disparate tastes—Pozgay leans toward Matisse, Keith Haring, and Cy Twombly, while Argote prefers Vermeer and Giorgio Morandi. After a few years, the two began to envision combining their talents and striking out on their own. At that point, Pozgay’s early corporate experience paid off. “You can have a really amazing product,
SHOP T H E CO L L E CTION Like what you see? Select pieces from Pozgay’s spring 2015 collection are available in the Martha Stewart American Made Market, at ebay.com/ americanmade.