Saturday, August 20, 2005

Target This hot pink ensemble for Target is distinguished with quilting and a tone-on-tone big polka-dotted jacquard on the sheets and pillows. The twin coverlet is $69.99; full/queen is $99.99; king is $109.99. The jacquard pillowcases sell in sets of two for $9.99; flat or fitted sheets start at $14.99.

Mizrahi for the home

Fashion designer applies his eclectic taste to affordable furnishings and accessories at Target

By Elaine Markoutsas / Primary Color

Target Bold blooms adorn this Pop Flower Duvet Set. Prices range from $69.99-$89.99 at Target. Target A giant orange tulip seems to be sprouting out of a claw-foot tub, with the illusion enhanced by the sheer vinyl that it's printed on. The shower curtain is $14.99. Target The all-white folding table, $49.99, is engaging. Mizrahi decorates the piece simply with two small squares in hot pink. Target A bold table runner has orange poppies popping against a white background. Quilting lends a traditional touch. The runner is $17.99. Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

As much as he respects classical style, 43-year-old fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi doesn't mind raising an eyebrow or two. He is known for simple garments that often are as exuberant as their charming maker, laced with delightfully unexpected bold color, pattern, trims and combinations of fabric, such as casual fleece with silk and wool.

The New York designer of haute couture made a daring segue to the masses two years ago with fashion for Target. So it came as no surprise when Target invited him to bring his stylish sizzle into the home this year.

Mizrahi's spring/summer home launch, an ambitious rollout of more than 200 products -- bedding, bath and kitchen goods, tabletop items, furniture, rugs, lighting and accessories, including blankets, polka-dot bowls and reversible gingham and tattersall placemats for pets -- has taken off.

His garments have a following of celebs such as Oprah Winfrey, Madonna, Candice Bergen, Bebe Neuwirth and Diane Sawyer, and the move to Target added to his celebrity rather than tarnishing his image among high fashionistas. He says it's just "branching out, not selling out."

So at his last runway show of exclusive handmade-to-order clothing for Bergdorf Goodman, he had the chutzpah to show a $20,000 embroidered shirt with one of his $14.99 Target wrap skirts. His clients adored it.

Louis Lanzano / Associated Press Designer Isaac Mizrahi is enjoying another hit at Target with his playful home collection. "I don't want it taken too seriously, I want to encourage people to surround themselves with fun, colorful things. It's all about color."

And when he loves something, you may see it again and again. Take pink, for example. A $5,000 frock, a $19.95 corduroy jacket and a $99.99 quilted bed coverlet all found inspiration on his design board.

His home collection features signature flowers on steroids in blazing bright colors that he describes as "a lot of fun."

"I don't want it taken too seriously," Mizrahi says. "I want to encourage people to surround themselves with fun, colorful things."

"It's all about color," agrees Charla Krupp, executive editor of Shop Etc., a shopping magazine published by Hearst that covers fashion, home and beauty. "Having his name attached adds an extra sexy zip." Krupp says his designs transcend age and generations, adding that "25- to-50-year-olds want something from Isaac."

Indeed, the versatile designer has many fans, some familiar with his alter ego as a performer. The Brooklyn-born Mizrahi was drawn equally to performing and fashion, which had family connections. His father cut patterns for children's clothing; his mother was a stylish dresser. Mizrahi took mental notes on the frocks she wore by Geoffrey Beene, Norman Norell and Chanel.

After he graduated from the Parsons School of Design in 1982, Mizrahi apprenticed for Perry Ellis and later worked with Calvin Klein. Just three years after he launched his own company, Mizrahi was honored by the Council of Fashion Designers of America as designer of the year in 1990.

He made his acting debut in 1993 in "For Love or Money," playing a fashion designer. He was an alien in "Men in Black" and made a cameo appearance in Woody Allen's "Celebrity."

Mizrahi starred in his own fashion documentary, "Unzipped," which won an award at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2000, he wrote and starred in a cabaret show, "Les Mizrahi," and designed the costumes and sets. He has hosted a talk show on the Oxygen network.

The designer also is author of a comic book series called "Sandee, the Adventures of a Supermodel," published by Simon & Schuster and now in development as a film.

So, by the time Mizrahi hammed it up on a TV commercial for Target, prancing among models and belting out the tune, "I Believe in You," his face was more recognizable than Calvin Klein or Donna Karan.

Longtime followers of his couture line might well recognize the bold, graphic poppies that sprawl across duvet covers, pillows, table runners and plates for Target. The flowers date from a dress in his mid-1990s couture line.

Still, with all the electric style, Mizrahi understands that his designs need to feel good.

"Isaac links his understanding of comfort to his products, just like his clothes," says Julie Lasky, editor in chief of I.D., a critical magazine covering the art, business and culture of design. Mizrahi's splash with the Target collection merited a May cover, and even upscale furnishings magazines such as House & Garden have taken note with feature stories.

"When we put him on the cover with a part of his collection, it was so bright on the newsstand," Lasky says, describing it as "almost Indian" in feeling, with the pinks and oranges. "But we (consumers) are more comfortable with those colors today. It's the brightness of the color in the midst of anonymous merchandise that draws you right in. It's not watered down. It's still very much Mizrahi. It looks good, and you feel like you're getting a bargain."

Indeed, the prices are on target, from $1.99 for a vinyl placemat to $249 for a white dresser. The sheer appeal of cheap chic makes the Mizrahi collection a perfect candidate for furnishing second homes because it looks great and is ridiculously affordable.

From the design aspect, Lasky applauds Mizrahi's editing skills.

"He knows just how far to take it," Lasky says. "He has managed to make it feel real. It's not a design gimmick."

Mizrahi's modern images are shown in traditional contexts that suggest applications in a variety of home settings. A man-sized orange tulip printed on a sheer vinyl curtain seems to sprout from an old-fashioned claw-foot tub. An equally impressive poppy, which dominates a white folding screen, is the surprising occupant of a traditional living room appointed with bare hardwood floors and a carved marble fireplace mantel.

Krupp believes the designs tap into the up-to-the-minute synergy between what we're wearing and how we're dressing our homes.

"We're seeing fashion and home overlapping like crazy," says the magazine editor. Approaching both, Mizrahi likes to strike a witty note.

"I don't think of designers as poets," he says. "What they do is present and apply an art into the design of an object. It's not brain surgery."

Billed in Target ads as "design for all," Mizrahi's work speaks to the demographic reach of his collection.

"I don't know if kids will love it," Mizrahi says. "But I do think a 16-year-old girl would be happy with it. And a 75-year-old grandmother might like the black-and-white checkered sheet. The exploded gingham pattern would work in most anybody's home. It has a little early American Colonial going on. The graphic snaps a little bit" for a modernist appeal.

"Eclecticism is a good thing," Mizrahi says. "This stuff is designed to mix. I'm not trying to tell people what they have is not good. (That's) just wasteful, just wrong."

As far as his personal style is concerned, Mizrahi says it's "very, very plain."

"I probably would call it modern traditional," he says. Currently in the process of decorating his home in Bridgehampton, N.Y., he so far has chosen a pale creamy yellow and a bright Astroturf green for his walls.

But he gravitates to classic furniture. "People think I'm sort of obsessed with the 1950s or 1960s. That's what I grew up around, not mid-century modern, which I consider classic. I've had some 18th-century French ballroom chairs for a long, long time. They're spindly, delicate. And a friend gave me a floor lamp that is made out of plumbing bars with a lampshade that looks like a bucket upside down."

The designer would love to do an upscale version of his furniture. No doubt, the high end would find a place right next to the Target product, just like his clothes.