Code: VINT0000045

Julien MacDonald

Julien MacDonald was born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, U.K. in 1972. MacDonald was taught knitting by his mother, and soon became interested in design. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1996 but even before that, in 1995, he had started his solo career designing knitwear under his own name, as well as for Karl Lagerfeld, Alexander McQueen and Koji Tatsuno. Seductive and opulent, Julien MacDonald's work takes the girlishness out of knitwear. He spins out fiery fantasies from his trusty knitting machine. Julien met the German designer Karl Lagerfeld when he won the annual Lagerfeld competition while at college. As a result, Lagerfeld hired him as knitwear designer for Chanel in 1996, and told Vogue: "Julien plays with his machine like Horowitz plays on his piano." MacDonald uses new modern fluorescent yarns and luminous mohair.