Escada

The Escada label was first founded in 1978 by Margaretha, a beautiful Swedish model, and Wolfgang Ley, a dynamic and ambitious entrepreneur in Munich. The two met while skiing in St. Moritz. Margaretha and Wolfgang visited Portugal, while there, Margaretha placed a bet on a horse named Escada meaning ‘staircase’ in Portuguese. After the pair fell in love and were married they began to design knitwear for the contract market. The couple found it easy to balance their marriage and working relationships, with Wolfgang Ley taking charge of the financial, administrative, and manufacturing end of the business, and Margaretha Ley establishing the company's reputation for design. The company was divided into "two businesses. In Munich there are two buildings, one for design and one for administration. The company soon stood out, with its distinctive creations featuring unusual combinations of colors and patterns, exclusive embroidery and elaborately designed knitted fashions. As they became an unstoppable creative team they quickly grew and the couple decided to join the designer trend and establish their own brand name, becoming what we know now as Escada. In 1984, Escada received a major boost when Vogue magazine featured a 16-page spread on the company’s apparel line. Margaretha Ley was the chief designer for the group until her death in 1992 at age 59.

Escada are considered to be one of the leading international luxury women's fashion brands. The company distributes to over in 64 countries worldwide, they have built its global reputation on its expert tailoring, use of luxurious fabrics, colour and attention to detail. Escada produces two seasonal collections for its ready-to-wear divisions: Escada, Escada Couture and Escada Sport, along with Escada Accessories, Escada Eyewear and Escada fragrances. The collections are available in nearly 500 places in 60 different countries.

Escada is renowned for its unique perfumes and colognes. In 1993, they showed Escada Pour Homme the men’s equivalent to the company’s classic perfume for women. They launched its first “lifestyle perfume” for the Escada Sport Line in 1995. The line includes three distinct fragrances: Feeling Free, Sport Spirit and Country Weekend.

During more recent times, Escada have continued to release fragrances with unique names, including Ibiza Hippie (2003), Island Kiss (2004), Into the Blue (2006) and Moon Sparkle (2007). Most of the fragrances continued along the vein of tropical punch, incorporating exotic fruit and aquatic/ozonic notes with traditional florals and musks. In fact, many fragrance lovers claim that Escada perfumes are largely responsible for establishing "fruity-floral" as a contemporary new fragrance family. As of May 2009, Escada's most recent release was Ocean Lounge, which contains notes of lychee, plum, pear, strawberry, mimosa and jasmine.

To view all products from this designer, click here