What a life story for Lubov Azria…born in the Ukraine where she studied ballet under Bolshoi Junior Company.  Is then forced to leave Russia, heads to San Antonio, Texas where her family has friends and she lived for several of her early years.  I can only imagine the culture shock, but Lubov answered “yes ma’am” when I asked if this was true and says she considered herself a Texan at heart, but not for long as she then moved to L.A.  Her love was art, but realizing that making a living could be difficult, went to FIDM Fashion School in L.A., and found a new passion. She went for a job interview with Max Azria, 21 years ago, was hired, married her boss a year later, and the end result has been a beautifully close collaboration between Lubov and Max that has created for her a top design responsibility and title and a 20 brand empire that the two oversee.

As we chatted at Neiman Marcus after I had seen both runway shows at Fashion Houston, I asked her to talk to me about the lines that I had seen and a brief glimpse of each customer.  She felt it was important to understand that there really are three lines…. Read the rest of this entry »