Behind the seams with William Calvert. Vital statistics were all we had before the mission: Born: Baltimore, MD. May 3rd, 1969. Company type: Family-owned evening couture. Lauded for: Minimal, impeccable dresses utilizing couture draping in buttery silk and wool jersey and cashmere. The Key: Styling and construction through the use of one seam for each dress. Stores: Neiman Marcus, Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman..

Von Ziggy : I would describe your work as minimal and chic. It’s often called couture. What makes it couture?

W: It's couture because it’s a made to measure product and because of the price point. Couture actually means made to measure, but in America we bastardize that term to mean more expensive than designer, like Donna [Karan] and Calvin [Klein] are designer product, but firms like Geoffrey Beene and Carolina Herrera are a bit more expensive who are considered a couture product. That’s what we go for - to bring a "made to measure" quality to the store and individuals.

Z: In couture terms, does that mean you can wear your dresses inside out?

W: No one has ever done that yet but I would like to think they could.

Z: Who do you think your customer is and what do they pay to own one of your dresses?

W: The dresses retail in the store anywhere from on a rare occasion $1500 all the way up to $4000. I think my customer is someone size 4 to 12, short or tall, who likes and understands fashion; Someone that wears jewelry and a dress but not dresses with jewelry on them, with bells and whistles. I don’t do that. I went to the Galliano party at Bergdorf’s last night. I have the greatest respect for a designer like him because he’s arrived, he’s treated like a king he’s been great influence on fashion, but it’s Baroque. It’s fantastic what he does, but I don't know how to do that. I would get lost sticking all that stuff on one dress, but he does it in a very great way. Z: So how did you arrive at the conclusion that you wanted to be a designer, I read somewhere that you couldn't find a W: ...and I walked out of the house one day naked. (We both laugh). It's funny because I think in a lot of ways design chose me. I was always an artistic kid, I always painted on walls and made sculptures out of whatever I could lay my hands on. When I applied to art university the advisors always tried to steer towards sculpture but I always chose design. I was really fascinated by what people wear when I was younger and I still am now.I think that people kid themselves when they wake up in the morning and dress themselves that say they’re not making a statement. Whether they're wearing a 3-piece Brooks Brothers suit and English shoes or Armani or Moschino or Galliano - they're making a big statement everyday.

Z: Did any of your past experiences influence you? You worked for a lot of great houses in Europe. How was it working at Balenciaga? I had a draping professor at FIT who would ask us "Who is the master tailor?" , and before we could answer he would screech, "Balenciaga! Balenciaga! Balenciaga!"

W: It was great working at Balenciaga. Michel Goma, the head designer, is very talented. He does Balenciaga through a mixture of past, present and future syling. Most people think of Balenciaga as austere and severe. I found it severe, but in a flamenco sort of way, not in a Jil Sander way. All the past experience was wonderful because I saw the quality of the workmanship. The (European) approach is very different from America where they just stitch things up here and there and it’s "done"; I don't want to make that, I want to make pretty clothes, and pretty clothes cost. For them to fit well and hang well, you have to use really special fabric. That's tricky.

Z: What is your main inspiration?

W: I am influenced by what I see in the world but I don't want to appropriate other designers’ details. So many American sportswear companies do that and I say, enough already. Come up with your own identity. I really think that large houses like Prada, for example, are successful because they aking of diluted - on my walk from the subway to you office here on 57th street I noticed the new Strawberry's. There's a need for that - it's not where we choose to be it's definitely not about fashion - it's about something else entirely. How do you feel about the growth of these businesses and how they relate to yours?

W: It's strange. I think what's happened is that a rift has formed where either you can afford fashion per se or you can't. Fashion and clothing have become two different things and certainly there are people with great style who can make fashion out of mere clothing, but if you want fashion you have to go to some store and spend a bundle of money - which is both understandable and also a total shame. Not everyone can afford a $1000 suit, so they go and find something that durable and wearable at Bolton’s, (also on this block - also owned by Strawberry's. I just don't see why people can't deliver fashion at cheaper price points. At this point, for myself, I’m thinking about how many more people I need to hire to branch into daywear, or evening suits because right now I’m just doing dresses. I’d love to have my own production facilities opposed to having a designer line, and a bridge line and a better line, then a moderate line all the way down to Kmart. I’d rather say here’s couture evening dresses, and bring couture evening suits next season and then day suits and shoes. All horizontal expansion. I mean, we’ll see what the market brings. Maybe I’ll have to do a line called W.C. - like water closet - at $150 wholesale. I don’t know.

Z: You have referred to dress dress design as a laboratory. Please elaborate.

W: What we do here (I’m not in the workroom all day long), we experiment, it's not about making a dum-dum dress every time that can fit anybody. I certainly always have some easy fit dresses on the line, but at this price point you must maintain your originality so you experiment.

Z: You experiment in the construction.

W: Rather than adding detail on top, the detail in m ing designs the whole dress rather than that just being an extra detail. I try to find a way to get a lean or flattering line that's based in need or function rather in frivolity. A good example is this jacket - with a harness that holds up the whole jacket, it's very difficult to make silk wool jersey stiff like that using horse hair. On the hanger it just looks like an interesting detail but once it's on you realize the harness works like a built-in bra.

Z: How does the one seam technique make the dresses more beautiful or flattering while worn?

W: That'’s one thing that gets my creative juices flowing... It's one of the parameters that I think about when I'm designing; Here's a cool piece of fabric. How can I make a dress out of just one piece? When I first starting making these dresses out of one seam I thought they were going to fit like regular dresses but they don't. They have a balance completely different than regular dresses. The same concept as the car commercial touting body parts stamped out of the same piece of steel so they fit together better. It's the same thing! It's one continuous piece of fabric so the whole thing falls like one whole piece, rather than something stuck together. It's more like a bodysuit than a bodysuit, it's like a second skin, because there’s no seams.

Von Ziggy's’s personal fashion limitus test: 5 feet four and not particularly model-like, William offered to have me try a navy one seam number with a drapy cowl neckline and a wraparound skirt leading to a tiny slit. Once I slipped the dress on I felt like it was framing and caressing my body, rather than constricting or slipping off. I left impressed with William Calvert’s honesty and ingenuity, but most of all I was impressed by how flattering his dresses really are.