Brad Rosenblatt, owner and CEO of Rene Ruiz Wholesale Inc. and the brand Rene Ruiz Collection; and his partner Alan Behar, owner of the Ike Behar luxury men’s fashion house; have announced that Luis Escudero, who has been with the Rene Ruiz company as its senior designer since 2008, has been named creative director of the company.
As creative director, Escudero will be the design force for the 25-year old Miami brand that is known for entrance-making evening gowns and glamorous cocktail dresses. To meet customer demand for more cocktail dresses and bridal gowns, the design team was expanded with the addition of Senior Designer Rafael Cennamo, who has dressed superstars such as Rihanna, Eva Longoria, Beyoncé, Selena Gomez,Paulina Rubio, Anne Hathaway, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift, among many others.
Rosenblatt, who has worked in various capacities with the Rene Ruiz company since 2002, has owned the company since 2009 and has owned the brand and trademark since 2013. He is responsible for the brand's growth outside of Miami-Dade County and for creating the dealsto sell at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus (in stores and online), as well as in specialty stores in the U.S. and worldwide, growing the company to the success it is today with plans of further expansion.
Creative Director Luis Escudero
Miami resident Escudero, worked alongside company founder and designer Rene Ruiz (who has not worked for the company since June 2017), on every aspect of the design process: choosing fabrics at the Premiere Vision fabric show in Paris, designing custom fabrics, overseeing entire collections through to completion, organizing and producing runway shows, to creating and tailoring custom gowns for private clients.
Escudero, whose parents are from Colombia, was born in Miami Springs, and graduated from International Fine Arts College (IFAC) ? now known as Miami International University of Art & Design ? in 2000 with a degree in fashion design. There, he mastered the arts of pattern making, draping and how to work with fabrics and the human form. After college, he lived in Paris for a year while attending the Paris Fashion Institute, where he honed his design skills and often visited the major fashion houses. While there, Escudero worked with fine jewelry designer Alan Faye, whose jewelry, Alan Faye Paris, sold in top establishments like Harrods London. Escudero learned invaluable lessons about proportion and aesthetics from Faye.
Upon his return to the U.S., Escudero became assistant designer for Viviana Gabeiras, designer and founder of Petit Pois, a well-respected sportswear brand that manufactures women's sportswear in Miami and is sold at Nordstrom, among other retailers. After two years, he went on to work for several leading Miami designers, as well as designing custom gowns for private clients, before being offered the position of senior designer at the Rene Ruiz label.
According to Rosenblatt, "Luis was the only choice to succeed Ruiz. He's immensely talented, and after 10 years doing a lot of the design work, he knows what our customer wants, but is bringing his own fresh take and contemporary point of view to the collections, without losing sight of the brand's elegant identity and customer appeal."
Senior Designer Rafael Cennamo (pronounced CHE-na-mo)
Joining the label under Escudero’s direction as its new senior designer will be Miami resident Rafael Cennamo, also a fashion graduate of IFAC, who will work on expanding the line of cocktail and evening separates, while focusing on custom couture dresses. Cennamo will also be overseeing the custom design and fitting process in the two Rene Ruiz Collection retail stores in Aventura and Boca Raton.
He has vast experience in both design and merchandising, which he gained while working in New York when he relocated his label from Miami in 2009. In New York, he worked as creative director developing high-end dresses for bothevening and bridal lines and coordinated themfor each consecutive season. These lines were sold at Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and bridal specialist Kleinfeld's in the U.S.; in the U.K. at Harrods and Harvey Nichols; and specialty stores worldwide.
The Venezuelan-born Cennamo is a well-known and beloved name in fashion in Miami, where he earned the following of discerning local, international and Latin American socialites who attend Miami galas during the society season. Cennamo had his own label and presented dazzling runway shows, including one at New York Fashion Week.
As Behar noted, “Cennamo's designs captured the attention of many prominent celebrities and socialites in Miami, New York and Hollywood, so he understands glamour and the brand’s aesthetic. He's a natural fit to work under Escudero in expanding the Rene Ruiz Collection brand and meet our rapidly-growing customer demands.”
About the Rene Ruiz Collection
The Rene Ruiz Collection is sold nationally at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, in the company's two stores in South Florida (Boca Raton and Aventura), and at over 40 high-end specialty stores worldwide. Most recently, the Rene Ruiz Collection Atelier opened inside of Van Cleve, an iconic boutique that has flourished for over three decades on the Main Line in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was voted the 2018Main Line Today magazine's “Readers' Choice” for Best Bridal Shop and Best Evening Wear. The Rene Ruiz Wholesale Inc.’s corporate office is located at 1055 East 15 Street, Hialeah, FL 33010. For more information or to contact the Rene Ruiz Collection, call (305) 445-1766 or visit www.reneruiz.net.
