Saul Kapilivsky

Saul Kapilivsky grew up in a clothing manufacturing family. His father was a menswear manufacturer, his mother designed women’s career clothes, and both his sisters designed and produced children’s, women’s, and men’s wear. The family knitted their own jerseys and interlock knit fabrics. At age 9 he was designing fabric for his sister.

He graduated from the Academy of Art University with an MFA in Fashion Design; he also holds a BFA in Graphic design and an AA in Fashion Merchandising. In 1988 he was one of the finalists in the Air France Concours International Des Jeunes Createurs De Mode representing the United States in France. Throughout his career of over 34 years, he has worn many hats; from designing Mother of the Bride and Special Occasion gowns, creating and launching wholesale eveningwear collections to owning his own business.

During that time he sold to major department stores in the Bridal and Eveningwear departments, specialty stores, boutiques, and mail-order catalogs. His responsibilities included fabric and trim sourcing, supervising the cutting room and special size cutting orders, traveling for personal appearances, fashion shows, trunk shows, and photoshoots. He has dressed celebrities such as Aretha Franklin, Diedre Hall, and Mary Hart for red carpet events, as well as several pageants such as Miss America, Miss USA, and Miss Universe.