Cuban born Isabel Toledo attended both the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design, but she credits an internship with Diana Vreeland at the Metropolitan Museum of art with her real training. She has been described as a “cult figure” by the New York Times, one of the “100 Designers that Count” by Women’s Wear Daily, and Vogue called her “an important raw talent.” In 1998, together with her husband Ruben Toledo, Isabel was the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology, which chronicled their seventeen years of collaboration in design and art. In 2005, Isabel and Ruben Toledo were the recipients of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Fashion and in 2006 they were awarded a Fashion Visionary Award by FGI, an organization founded by Eleanor Roosevelt to promote design awareness in the United States. Yale University Press will publish a 25 year retrospective exhibition and catalog of her fashion designs.
"He didn't just take their pictures, he captured their souls."
