Who

Toledo is a fashion industry favorite and avant-garde designer. With her husband Ruben Toledo, she's been a fixture on the New York fashion scene for more than two decades.

Backstory

Born in Cuba, Isabel fled to the U.S. with her family in the late 1960s and settled in the New Jersey suburbs. She was a 14-year-old middle school student in West New York when she first met fellow Cuban expat—and future husband—Ruben, and the two began dating after high school. They moved to the city and she enrolled at Parsons, but in 1979 she dropped out to take up an internship with Diana Vreeland at the Costume Institute at the Met. Five years later she left to launch her label, and emerged as a shining talent on the scene. She was one of several fashion up-and-comers who attracted attention with a concession stand at Fiorucci, and her line was soon on sale at Patricia Field and Henri Bendel. Yet despite the early career momentum, financial difficulties forced her to withdraw from the market in the late 1980s, and she stayed afloat by selling her avant-garde designs to European and Japanese clients. Toledo rebounded in the late 1990s when she returned to the U.S. market: Barneys picked up her collection and she opened a store of her own. In October 2006, she was named creative director of Anne Klein, only to be unceremoniously dropped a year later.

Of note

Known for her esoteric designs and quirky aesthetic, Toledo has never been a big brand name. But she's long had a cult-like following with fashionistas and downtown trendsetters: Her champions over the years have included Donna Karan (who lent her shoes for early runway shows), Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Todd Oldham, Paper's Kim Hastreiter, and of course her artist husband Ruben, who collaborates with her on designs, sketching concepts and hand-painting fabrics. Toledo's career took a surprising turn in 2006 when she was tapped to serve as creative director of Anne Klein, a move that was seen as an attempt to inject some energy into the staid, flagging label and thus increase the valuation of its parent company, Jones Apparel Group, which was looking for a buyer. Toledo's first collection for Anne Klein debuted during Fashion Week in February 2007 and earned praise from insiders (and a standing ovation in the tents). However, following a management shake-up at Jones, the company announced plans to focus on its lower-priced collections and discontinued Toledo's line—although she's still under contract and unable to talk about her ousting.

Soundbite

"I think one can fairly call Isabel a genius," said Valerie Steele, the director of the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, who is planning to give Toledo a "mid-career" retrospective in 2009.

Personal

Isabel and Ruben—who are both slender, dark, and around 5'6"—have been married since 1984. They share a live/work penthouse loft near the Flatiron district, which they gutted and renovated in 1995. (Their living room was featured in Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda.) The Toledo bedroom features a framed collage made out of trimmings from Isabel's hair.