As a child growing up in Detroit in the 1960s, Kevan Hall fell in love with Motown. He loved the music, but what bowled him over was the seductive beauty of the gowns he saw Martha Reeves and Diana Ross wear on programs like The Ed Sullivan Show.
"I'd see Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and Diana Ross and the Supremes on Ed Sullivan and I would pretend to re-design their costumes and wardrobes," he recalls. "I was 7 and was always interested in fashion and design."
Following his youthful passion, Hall studied fashion design at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, where he won first place as "Designer of Tomorrow," which earned him a scholarship at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles.
After graduating, he worked for many different fashion companies. "It's important for a young designer to find a mentor or get into a company to learn all the aspects, even picking up pins or getting coffee, to find yourself entrenched in the industry," he says.
In the early '80s, he and his wife, Deborah, started the Kevan Hall Collection, selling to stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.
By 1998, he'd been hired as creative director of Halston, where his gowns were worn by such celebrities as Angela Bassett, Salma Hayek, Sharon Stone and Celine Dion.
Kevan with Jody Watley
These days he creates glamorous gowns - billows of taffeta, sheaths of charmeuse - for A-list celebrities like Felicity Huffman, Drew Barrymore and Virginia Madsen.
Sources(s): Ebony Magazine and The Denver Post
VIDEO: Mercedes Benz Fashion Week
Kevan with actresses CCH Pounder and Kasi Lemmons
Kevan with his brother actor Vondie Curtis-Hall (left)
