Barbara Tfank seems to revolve her design style around the 1960’s Doris Day chic, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” motif. This costume designer turned fashion legend began her career pursing art while earning her B.A. at Skidmore College. Mrs. Tfank then went on to earn her Master’s at the prominent Stanford University. At this moment she realized fashion was her life’s passion; she accepted an apprenticeship with designer Cesarani soon after. Some of Tfank’s first designs hit the silver screen in movies like Dream Lover and Beautician and the Beast. These movies helped parlay her career into a great success.
With Tfank’s most recent collections’ inspiration derived from legendary films that fell in the 1960’s genre, or a classic Leger piece that is draping across the luminous white walls of the New York MoMA, they all seem to closely intertwine in style. Mrs. Tfank’s 2008 Spring line sprung forth from the dark-eyed sophistication of Anouk Aimee, a 1960’s art house film star. This line incorporated icy pastels woven with silver and white to create the chic yet opulent collection. The delicate mixture of the silk and thick brocade textures created a very wearable collection. Tfank’s Fall ’08 line offered vibrant colors that were offset with a luscious black. Just like in Leger’s painting of the “Three Women”, Tfank’s true inspiration for her design created black silhouettes that drew your eye to the lipstick red or vivid gold that she had woven throughout her clothes. The textiles she used were truly unique, just like this one of a kind painting. Barbara Tfank’s minimalist attitude is mirrored not only throughout her collections, but in the notion that her clothes are only exclusively sold at Barneys.