Rebecca Taylor

If feminine, romantic dressing is your thing, the brand has a devoted following for good reason. Rebecca Taylor pieces are known for their distinctive cuts and luxe fabrics, and fans return for the softly pretty aesthetic that defined the New York label. It sits in the contemporary tier, so it is an attainable designer name rather than a high-luxury splurge.

The label built its name on well-made, detail-rich womenswear with a feminine, romantic point of view. Reviewers tend to praise the fabrics and the considered construction, which is what you would expect from a designer who trained in fashion design and spent six years working under Cynthia Rowley before launching her own line.

Feminine, romantic womenswear, the floral-leaning, softly pretty aesthetic that became the New York label's signature. The brand made its name dressing women who want something delicate and distinctive rather than minimal, and that romantic sensibility is the thread through the whole collection.

Rebecca Taylor is a New Zealand-born fashion designer based in New York City, born 5 September 1969. She attended Wellington High School, trained in fashion design at Wellington Polytechnic (now Massey University), and arrived in New York with just $600 to her name before building her career there.

After studying fashion design in New Zealand, she moved to New York and was hired by designer Cynthia Rowley, under whom she worked for six years. She then debuted at New York Fashion Week as part of the Gen Art Styles competition in the late 1990s before staging her own catwalk show in 1999.

The designer and her label are rooted in New York City, where she built her career after emigrating from New Zealand. Her retail reach extended to boutiques in Japan, and the brand grew into a substantial business, reported in 2003 as having a US$12 million turnover.

The brand has changed hands more than once. It was acquired by Kellwood Company and Sun Capital Partners in January 2011, and in November 2019 it was acquired by Vince, a California-based contemporary label. The designer herself stepped away from her company in August 2019 to pursue other fashion opportunities.

She stepped away from her company in August 2019 to pursue other fashion opportunities, and the brand was acquired by Vince shortly afterward in November 2019. So the label continues under new ownership rather than under the founder's day-to-day direction.

Yes. Her garments have been worn by the likes of Cameron Diaz and Reese Witherspoon, as well as the casts of 90210 and Sex and the City. That kind of on-screen and red-carpet visibility helped cement the brand's reputation for feminine, of-the-moment dressing.

Beyond celebrity wear, the designer's home country has honoured her work: in 2007 she was inducted into the Massey University College of Creative Arts Hall of Fame. It is a nod to a career that began with fashion training in Wellington and grew into a New York label.

Lead with the pieces that show off the house's feminine, romantic signature, the blouses and dresses with distinctive detailing, since those are what the label is loved for. Contemporary labels rotate stock seasonally, so transitional periods between seasons are usually the most rewarding time to browse for the styles you want.