Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax; 713/743-8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 19, 2004

Contact: Lisa Merkl
713/743-8192 (office)
713/605-1757 (pager)

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: A photo of Victor Costa is available on the Web at http://www.uh.edu/admin/media/nr/2004/04apr/041904vcostas.html. A high-resolution photo is available by contacting Lisa Merkl.

CELEBRATED FASHION DESIGNER VICTOR COSTA TO RECEIVE
FIRST MERCHANDISING STAR AWARD BY UH COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

HOUSTON, April 19, 2004 – The fashion industry’s King of the Copycats, world-renowned designer Victor Costa, is coming home to accept a University of Houston Merchandising Star Award for significant contributions to his profession.

Presented by UH’s College of Technology, the honor to be bestowed upon Costa, a 1958 UH alumnus, will be shared with fellow UH alumna Rose Cullen, a former UH cheerleader who modeled Costa’s fashions when they were school chums.

The awards ceremony will be held at noon, Wednesday, April 28, at the Westin Galleria Hotel and will feature a fast-paced fashion show outlining Costa’s history in the fashion industry. Proceeds from the event will be donated to an endowment for merchandising students at UH. The ceremony and show are open to the public, and tickets can be obtained by calling 713-743-4110.

A legend on New York’s Seventh Avenue, Costa was born in Houston and educated at St. Thomas High School, Pratt Institute and UH. While attending UH, Costa yearned to also study in Paris at the prestigious Ecole Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. One of his UH professors helped him attain this dream, arranging for Costa to attend the school in Paris and earn credit for the courses back at UH. His classmates at the Ecole included the young Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent, designers who later would make an impact on Costa’s career. Costa graduated from UH in 1958.

“While our programs have evolved over the years to meet the demands of the marketplace, we still have a very strong merchandising program with a majority of our students entering the fashion industry,” said Shirley Ezell, a former dean of the UH College of Technology and now a consumer sciences and merchandising professor.

“While our degrees were more design-oriented in Victor’s time, today they are more retail-oriented. Our more recent graduates typically go through executive training programs to become fashion buyers, store managers and develop private brands with designers. They are typically the ones who make the decisions about what fashions will be adopted in the marketplace. The retail of this industry is quite competitive, so we have taken a broader view of the merchandising field with our curriculum, providing experiences in a range of areas that train students in such a manner that can take them from the trenches to the executive training arena.”

“My talent was most definitely enriched by my UH degree,” says Costa. “The College of Technology gave me a good education that I was able to capitalize on in the marketplace. I’ve always approached my career as a businessman first and an artist second.”

On a typical dress rack of Victor Costa fashions, one is bound to find exquisite jackets and lavish gowns with ruffles, netting, feathers and fishtails. Such centerpieces of Costa’s collections make up an eclectic mix that reflects his flair for interpreting the work of others, particularly from such couturiers as Valentino and Lacroix.

Some of the phrases used endearingly to describe Costa’s talent to interpret have included “maestro copier,” “shoplifter,” “fashion fax machine,” “thieving fan” and “veteran knockoff artist.”

You would think that such dubious titles might bother him, but Costa embraces his title as the “copycat king” in the good spirit with which it was meant. Praised for his innate sense for current fashion trends, Costa not only is an interpreter of styles but a fashion forecaster, as well. In a show of respect by his peers, he was voted a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1966, joining the ranks of such luminaries as Bill Blass and Oscar de la Renta.

“It’s not enough to be inspired by a $25,000 Paris couture dress, but to make it for $500 and know that my customer will wear it and love it is my raison d’etre,” says Costa. “I don’t at all mind my reputation for delivering runway dresses at budget prices, but I do prefer to say that I am influenced by such couturiers, rather than a duplicator of their work. My personal goal is to interpret and refine those looks for my ladies.”

His talent and popularity, in fact, has garnered him television appearances on “Oprah,” “Extra!,” “Inside Edition” and “Good Morning America.” Additionally, his clientele includes such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep, Cybill Shepherd, Brooke Shields, Joan Rivers, LeAnn Rimes, Cecilia Bartoli and Beverly Sills, all of whom have chosen his dresses at one time or another for their red carpet arrivals. Even Joan Crawford and Ivana Trump have been loyal followers.

Hollywood has long considered Costa to be an important resource for glamorous fashion. His clothes have been featured in the films “Broadcast News,” “Black Rain,” “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” and “Sabrina,” as well as on countless television shows, such as “Dharma and Greg,” “General Hospital” and “All My Children.” Costa also was one of the major fashion forces behind the heroines of the evening soaps of the 1980s, such as “Falcon Crest,” “Dynasty” and “Dallas.” Not content just to clothe Hollywood, Costa has dressed generations of First Ladies, including Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, Rosalind Carter and Laura Bush.

Making his mark in the ready-to-wear industry, Costa’s collections have been sold in such department stores as Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, Marshall Fields, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. His affordable renditions of haute couture creations caught the eye of Bergdorf Goodman, installing a Victor Costa boutique in its landmark Fifth Avenue store in New York City in 1987. In 1990, Costa was commissioned to create an American collection for Christian Dior. And for each of the past 25 years, Costa has made an appearance in the much-heralded Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog.

In 1995, Costa moved his operations from Dallas to New York City, the epicenter of the fashion world, where his successful recreations of couture clothes came to the attention of media giant QVC. The Victor Costa Occasion collection made its QVC debut Oct. 24, 2001, breaking a record for this major home shopping force with $1 million in sales in just 47 minutes. Costa enjoys an even wider customer base than ever before through QVC, selling up to 45,000 pieces of a single item and building a client base of 85,000 members.

“Since joining QVC more than two years ago, Victor has made a significant impact on our fashion business,” said Darlene Daggett, president of U.S. Commerce for QVC Inc. “His reputation and passionate concern for the customer, coupled with his eye for discriminating fashion, are the perfect combination for success on QVC.”
Costa now divides his time between New York City and Connecticut, but still calls his beloved native Texas home.

About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000 students.

About the College of Technology
The College of Technology was one of the earliest colleges to be established within UH and is responsible for teaching and granting degrees related to practical areas of technology and consumer science. The college’s emphasis on practical technology and merchandising is combined with training in practical business and leadership skills. The practical emphasis helps to bring about a smooth transition for students from school to the workplace and makes their skills valuable in a very immediate way to the companies and institutions that hire them. Two-thirds of the college’s students are employed in their field before graduation.

To receive UH science news via e-mail, visit http://www.uh.edu/admin/media/sciencelist.html.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.