Trovata

During their senior year of college in 2002, California friends Jeff Halmos, John Whitledge, Sam Shipley, and Josia Lamberto-Egan launched a capsule men's collection under the name Trovata. They made their New York runway debut three years later, introducing women's apparel as well. Since then, the label has racked up major awards: a $25,000 Ecco Domani in 2005, the coveted $200,000 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund the following season, and the CFDA's Swarovski Perry Ellis for menswear in 2006. That same year, Lamberto-Egan left the label to live with his girlfriend in Seattle, and Shipley and Halmos departed to forge their own label, citing creative differences. Since then, Whitledge has carried the label solo, to critical praise. Trovata opened its first stand-alone boutique in Los Angeles in August 2007, and the line is carried in more than 250 stores across the U.S. and abroad, including Barneys, Odin, and American Rag. The Trovata look embodies disheveled prep: well-worn blazers and chinos, striped ties, toggle sweaters, and plenty of corduroy with mismatched buttons. Every season, the label concocts satirical tales to accompany its collection, usually about rich folks gone bad, like a murder at a fancy ski lodge involving a fondue fork or a wealthy family gone bankrupt.