Drawing from his Middle Eastern origins just like his yankee heritage, 25 year old Tawfik Mounayer cleverly avoids the pitfalls of the ornamental and the obvious cultural stereotype. Born in Palestine and raised in New York, this graduate of the Parsons School of Design released his first collection, ‘Audition’, in Autumn 2000. Ultra feminine, this first show instantly reinvigorated the concept of American sportswear, paying hommage to the pioneering work of the designer Claire McCardell as well as Yves Saint Laurent, his other inspiration. Two collections then followed in which details and eras were elegantly dispersed: 80s shoulder pads and leggings, postmodern asymmetries, Victorian collars and armholes…Far from a forbidding exercise in fashion history, Mounayer dusts off these stylistic totems, culturally assimiliated, to oddly amalgamate them. He also shows a taste for sexy lines and a sophisticated use of colour. More rational, his latest collection refined his interpretation of classic sportswear. Variations in grey, enveloping capes, flannel or jersey dresses knotted at the waist and inlaid with crocheted artisanal motifs. This new generation, which for a longtime was crushed by the unshakeable foundations of American style, today is calmly swallowed up in the breach created by Jeremy Scott and Andre Walker. Not needing to go in to exile however, this new breed testifys to the arrival of the label ‘Made in USA’.