A Passion for Fashion

A Passion for Fashion

Rice Alum Half of Successful Badgley Mischka Design Team

BY DAVID KAPLAN
Rice News Staff
Feb. 4, 1999

James Mischka ’85 is quite likely the only former Rice biomedical engineering major to have designed an evening gown for Madonna.

As half the team of Badgley Mischka, he is one of the hottest fashion designers in the world. The New York Times has described Badgley Mischka as the next generation of Bill Blass and Oscar de la Renta, while Vogue recently declared that Mischka and his partner Mark Badgley were among the “Top 10 American Designers.”

Revered in Hollywood, Badgley Mischka has created romantic sparkling gowns for Sharon Stone, Cameron Diaz, Winona Ryder, Jessica Lange, Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster and other screen stars.

It sounds like a pretty glamorous way to make a living, but the fashion business, Mischka says, can be grueling, especially when they’re putting together their next collection and it’s after midnight. A Badgley Mischka dress, often beaded, is extremely labor-intensive. “No one does it as intricately as we do,” Mischka says. Some of their hand-sewn gowns contain 65,000 beads.

Occasionally, when they’re trying to make a deadline, it goes down to the wire.

There was the time, for example, when they were commissioned by Winona Ryder to design the gown she would wear to the ’96 Oscars. Sewing into the wee hours, the Badgley Mischka crew completed the dress on the Friday before the Monday event. While giving it the final once-over, Mischka and Badgley decided that the color should be peach instead of ivory. They dyed the gown in a sink.

The following day–the day they had to put the dress on a plane–they noticed a problem: The dress had shrunk dramatically, and it was definitely too late to make another one.

They devised a plan: Tie rocks to the bottom of the dress. The weighted evening gown was put on a hanger and shipped to Los Angeles. The plan worked. The lace gown expanded to its original size and, at the Oscars, Mischka recalls, Winona Ryder “looked fabulous.”

“Making people look great” is, in fact, Badgley Mischka’s goal, Mischka says, and many would say they’re succeeding. Women’s Wear Daily noted that Badgley and Mischka “continue to evolve their very special touch with looks that are more beautiful, more innovative and most surprisingly–when it comes to their bevy of beads–younger than ever.”

At Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue they are the No. 1 designer evening wear resource. Their dresses cost between $900 and $9,000.

What began as a three-person operation has grown to a staff of 60, with a volume last year of more than $40 million. Mischka says that he and Badgley strive to create evening wear that looks “‘glamorous Hollywood ’40s and modern at the same time.” Their beaded gowns, he says, are meant to evoke “an old couture kind of feeling.”

They use unorthodox methods to get that antique look. Some materials are soaked in Drano, and they’ve run their beading through a dishwasher.

Mischka began at Rice as a biomedical engineering major with plans of designing artificial limbs. He says he was looking for something creative in the engineering field. His lack of interest in mathematics eventually led him away from engineering and into becoming an art and art history/managerial studies double major.

At Rice, Mischka says, he was often dressed in black and was “the guy who always had different color hair.”

He credits Karin Broker, professor of art and art history, for having a pivotal role in his career. She was “very supportive” when he was a burgeoning art student and is the person who encouraged him to attend the Parsons School of Design in New York.

Broker made the suggestion because the artistically talented Mischka “really, really liked clothes” and Parsons is one of the best fashion schools in the world. New York City is also an international fashion center.

Broker remembers Mischka as being “the sweetest person, who always had a vision and real sense of what he wanted to do.”

Mischka left Rice to study at Parsons and then transferred credits back to Rice to complete his degree requirements. He graduated from both Rice and Parsons in ’85.

After graduating, he took a job designing menswear for WilliWear/Willi Smith in New York.

Eventually, Mischka decided to start his own business. His reasoning: “I was working so hard for other people, I figured I couldn’t work any harder for myself. I turned out to be way wrong.”

He decided to join forces with his friend Mark Badgley, whom he met at Parsons. Mischka notes that they launched the business on 8/8/88. In the early days, Badgley and Mischka did almost everything: design the clothes, make the patterns and buy and cut the fabric.

Right from the start, they created glamorous evening wear and–as they still do–imported their fabrics from France, Italy and Switzerland and their beads from India.

Not everything went smoothly at first. On the way to their runway show their first season, their taxi driver got lost, and their presentation had to start without them.

Their workroom-showroom-living space was in the rough “Hell’s Kitchen” area of Manhattan. Their open showroom sometimes picked up a crosswind. Once, a buyer dropped by and saw one of their exquisite gowns swirling around the parking lot of a nearby Burger King.

Even in the early days, Badgley and Mischka were getting business from Barney’s, Neiman Marcus and other big-name stores. When they were still fairly new on the scene, “everybody thought ‘Badgley Mischka’ was the name of a Russian lady,” Mischka recalls.

In ’92 Badgley Mischka received financial backing from Escada, a major German fashion company. In ’95 their business really took off–on the night when actress Teri Hatcher showed up at the Emmy Awards in one of their gowns. Her slinky, beaded gown received incredible raves, and other actresses began lining up to wear their creations to future Emmys and Oscars.

Sari Spazio of Milan has recently begun selling Badgley Mischka in Europe and the Middle East. Badgley and Mischka are in negotiations over expansion into evening shoes, evening hosiery, jewelry and menswear.

Mischka believes his Rice education has greatly helped him succeed in the fashion world. Along with his art and art history courses, he says the knowledge he picked up from economics and managerial studies courses has helped him run a business. Such a background, he says, gives him an advantage over most other fashion designers.

He still keeps up with friends from Rice. Most are artists, architects or photographers.

Talent may not be the only gift that distinguishes Mischka in the fashion world. Janis Fishman, manager of public relations at Neiman Marcus at the Galleria in Houston, finds both Mischka and Badgley to be exceptionally nice people. “You hear about fashion egos and divas,” Fishman says, “but James is as gracious and real as he can be.” At the conclusion of a recent Badgley Mischka trunk show at Neiman’s, Fishman recalls that Mischka said goodbye to almost everyone on staff, from waiters to sales associates. And, Fishman observes, “I don’t think I’ve ever received a thank you note from a designer before.”

Mischka also has other traits that have served him well in his work, his partner believes. “He’s got a passion for it, but I’ve never seen him lose his cool,” Badgley says. “He deals with the pressure extremely well.”

Fashion does not comprise all of Mischka’s life. In his leisure time, he’ll grab a hammer. He recently finished renovating a turn-of-the-century house that he and Badgley purchased in Southampton, Long Island.

Mischka believes the reason he and Badgley–each with his own creative vision–have managed to professionally coexist is that “fashion is a practical art and we’re pretty good at compromising. At least, we haven’t killed each other yet.”