Image Lab :: Fashion's Hotest Designers

The world is all abuzz with Fashion Week. Supermodels, the press and the world's most famous celebrities are crisscrossing the globe, ping-ponging from New York and London to Paris and Milan, for a front row seat to see what the biggest designers are presenting for Spring/Summer 2017. It's the perfect time to spotlight four of fashion's best, brightest, "Out" designers!

Michael Kors

Few designers have caught the public's attention and have flipped it into global stardom, with mass market success like Michael Kors. Who doesn't remember Michael from his hit stint as the funniest, and most bitingly acerbic judge, on the hit show "Project Runway?" Kors began designing in 1977, but it was a chance meeting with the legendary Dawn Mello, director of Bergdorf Goodman that put his career into overdrive.

Fun Facts:

*Michael Kors was the first womenswear designer for French fashion house C�line.

*Michael Kors Collection is a publiclytraded company! NYSE: KORS.

Christopher Bailey for Burberry

How does a storied, yet fading, British fashion house known mostly for selling macs and trenchcoats become one of the fashion world's hottest brands? You hire a wunderkind designer, who happens to be a hottie, Christopher Bailey! A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Bailey began his career as womenswear designer for Donna Karan and even logged time at Gucci. In 2001, he joined Burberry as design director and in
2013 was named CEO.

Fun Facts:

*Bailey has won multiple British Fashion Awards, including Designer of the Year (twice) and Menswear Designer of the Year (thrice).

*Worked with Tom Ford, at Gucci.

Olivier Rousteing for Balmain

What do supermodels Joan Smalls, Kendall Jenner, Bella and Gigi Hadid, as well as Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and music superstar Rihanna have in common? They are all members of 31-year-old, Balmain designer, Olivier Rousteing's "Balmain Army."

Yep, at 31 years old, Rousteing is the fashion designer and creative director of legendary French fashion house Balmain. Since joining the once-stodgy couture house known for strict tailoring and ladylike design, Rousteing
has remixed Balmain into one of fashion's most coveted and buzzed about brands.

Fun Facts:

*Under Rousteing, Balmain became the first French fashion house to pass a million followers on Instagram. They now have 5.3 million followers.

*Rousteing designed dresses and accessories for the Kim Kardashian Hollywood app, rumored to have driven over two million visitors to the Balmain website.

Marc Jacobs

Here's a list of what Marc has done: He's the youngest designer ever to be awarded the Council of Fashion Designers of America's (CFDA) Perry Ellis Award. In 1991 Jacobs won CFDA's Womenswear Designer of the Year Award and he has a total of 11 CFDA awards including their Lifetime Achievement Award (2011). In 1991, as head designer for Perry Ellis, Jacobs designed the infamous "grunge collection."He was consequently fired, but
the collection started a fashion revolution. It changed not just fashion, but modeling, by introducing "the waif."

In 1993, Jacobs started his eponymous line, Marc Jacobs, then in 1997 he became the creative director for Louis Vuitton, launching the company's first ready-to-wear line. At Vuitton, Jacobs collaborated with artists Stephen Sprouse and Takashi Murakami, creating the most sought-after purses Vuitton has produced to date. In 2001, Jacobs launched Marc by Marc Jacobs, a lower-priced, secondary line and by 2005 it was estimated to be worth more than 50 million.

In 2010, he was named one of Time magazine's"100 Most Influential People in the World." With over 285 stores worldwide, Jacobs is arguably the most
successful gay designer in the world.