I know that he calls himself an American designer these days, based as he is out of New York City, but to me, Marc Bouwer will always be a South African designer. Possibly just one that made really, really good. I mean this is a man who has dressed some of the biggest names in Hollywood for the Oscars.
I was prompted to review his work for you by these images of him hanging with one of his favourite clients, the lovely Emily Blunt. Now all us fashionista type people love ourselves some Emily. Devil Wears Prada, one stomach flu away from my ideal weight and all that. So it was quite a pleasure to see worlds colliding like this. And doesn't she look beautiful.
It turns out it is not the first time Marc has dressed Emily. In fact one of her best dresses ever was the green one that she wore to the 2008 BAFTA awards. Amazing,
Marc also does a fine line in little red dresses for the red carpet. Katherine McFee, Anna Torv from Fringe, Beyonce and Lydia Hearst have all chosen Marc's red spangle for big red carpet occasions. Anna's is definitely my favourite. She wore this to the Oscars this year.
And no retrospective of Marc Bouwer's red carpet dresses would be complete without mentioning the incredible white gown that he dressed Angelina Jolie in for her Oscars appearance in 2004. Who will ever forget that. And so we pay our respects to a South African designer, born and bred, who left our shoes for the Big Apple and made his mark. For nearly a decade. Fantastic stuff.