Who

Ed Filipowski is the co-president of KCD, one of the fashion world's most powerful PR firms and event producers.

Backstory

Filipowski joined KCD in his early 20s after picking up a journalism degree at Northwestern's journalism school. Founded in the early 1980s by onetime Vogue editor Kezia Keeble, her husband John Duka, and her ex Paul Cavaco, the firm became one of the most influential fashion PR firms and was responsible for championing the likes of Steven Meisel and Bruce Webber. But by the early 1990s, Cavaco had left the firm and Keeble and Duka had fallen ill (they eventually died); Filipowski and Mannion assumed leadership and later changed the name of the firm from Keeble, Cavaco & Duka to KCD. Today they carry on the legacy of their former mentors, and run one of the city's premier PR and event production outfits.

Of note

KCD has produced shows for just about everyone—Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Versace, Gucci, Zac Posen, Louis Vuitton, and Helmut Lang, to name just a few. The firm is regularly called on to choreograph events at the biggest venues in town; they've transformed Central Park, Grand Central Station, and the Armory into temples of glam. At KCD, Mannion generally handles more of the nuts-and-bolts production issues; Filipowski acts as the front man, and hobnobs with clients and editors.

Drama

The elite PR shop itself received some bad PR in 2008 when it was revealed that, in order to attain access to the Lexington Avenue Armory for Marc Jacobs' shows, KCD had bribed the government bureaucrat who controlled access to the site. The bribe was allegedly a mixture of cash and swag—$40,000, a Bowflex machine, computers, and more.

Personal

Filipowski's longtime romantic partner, Mark Lee, is also a fashion mogul: He's president of Yves Saint Laurent. Filipowski and Lee live in Chelsea and have a Stephen Sills-decorated country house upstate.