Todd Oldham (born Jacky Todd Oldham; October 22, 1961) is an American-born designer and president of L-7 Designs Inc and Todd Oldham Studios. His approach to fashion and style has become known to millions through his fashion lines, interior designs, books and by appearing in television shows. Oldham is based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Biography

Early life

Oldham was born Jacky Todd Oldham in

Corpus Christi, Texas Corpus Christi (; Ecclesiastical Latin: "''Body of Christ"'') is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio ...

in 1961 to Jack and Linda Oldham. He has two sisters and one brother. At age 15, he designed his first dress when he stitched together some pillowcases. His father was a computer programmer and the family moved around due to his father’s job, including a four-year stint in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

when Oldham was 12. He moved to

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

, Texas, after graduating high school. His first job was in the alterations department at the Polo Ralph Lauren. He borrowed $50 from his parents, bought 41 yards of white cotton jersey, dyed it and put together a tiny collection that he sold to

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compani ...

Career

During his early days in Dallas, Oldham showed his first collection in 1981, launched his first clothing line in 1989 and won the Council of Fashion Designer Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent in 1991. In 1988, Oldham moved to New York City with his business partner, Tony Longoria. Oldham served as creative consultant to

Escada Escada SE is a luxury women's designer clothing company headquartered in Munich, Germany. The company is owned by Regent, L.P., an international private equity firm led by investor Michael Reinstein. The company was founded in 1978 by design ...

between 1995 and 1997. He launched a perfume line in 1995 and designed a clothing line for

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

(2002–2003). In 1995, he produced a clothing line associated with the

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

film '' Batman Forever''. Oldham designed furniture and home accessories for La-Z-Boy furniture (2003–2007) and served as creative director for

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of the Old Navy stores are its ...

. He designed under his own label in New York from 1989-1999. When he left the fashion industry, he dispersed his archive to the Texas Fashion Collection and the

RISD Museum The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum) is an art museum integrated with the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, US. The museum was co-founded with the school in 1877, and still shares multiple build ...

, which held the 2016 exhibition "All of Everything: Todd Oldham Fashion," a retrospective of his fashion career. Oldham designed The Hotel of South Beach in 1999. He is currently designing the annex to the hotel. Todd Oldham has become widely known to American TV audiences through his many television appearances. Most notably, Oldham was the host of the "Todd Time" segment on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's ''

House of Style ''House of Style'' is an MTV show that premiered in May 1989, focusing on America's growing fascination with the "supermodel" craze. The show focused on fashion, lives of models, the modeling industry, and topics such as eating disorders. Overv ...

'' from 1993 to 1999. His appearances on ''House of Style'' has been credited with advancing his career during the 1990s. He has also hosted ''Fashionably Loud'' on MTV in 1999 and recently served as mentor to contestants on Bravo's '' Top Design''. Oldham is also actively involved in book publishing. He has produced a number of books on various aspects of style for Ammo Books as part of the Place Space series. Books in the series include photos and essays on filmmaker John Waters, the artist compound in upstate New York owned by Joe Holtzman (the founder of ''Nest'' magazine), and the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

's off-campus housing and Bedrock City. Oldham has created ''Hand Made Modern'', ''Without Boundaries'', and various other titles. In June 2007, Oldham released a monograph of artist Charley Harper’s work titled ''An Illustrated Life''. He has subsequently released monographs on Wayne White and

Ed Emberley Edward Randolph Emberley (born October 19, 1931) is an American artist and illustrator, best known for children's picture books. Biography Emberley was born in Malden, Massachusetts. He studied art at the Massachusetts School of Art in Boston ...

Philanthropy

Oldham is on the advisory board of the

Amazon Conservation Team The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) is a non-profit organization that works in partnership with indigenous people of tropical South America in conserving the biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest, as well as the culture and land of its indigenous ...

(ACT), to work in partnership with indigenous people in conserving biodiversity, health and culture in South America. He is also on the board of Aperture, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to promoting photography. Oldham has been involved with

Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a US non-governmental, and nonprofit organization which was founded in 1976 by couple Millard and Linda Fuller. Habitat for Humanity is a C ...

, Bailey House, the oldest supportive housing program for persons with HIV and AIDS in the United States, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Personal life

Oldham is openly gay. His longtime partner is Tony Longoria.

References

External links

*
Todd Oldham – Spontaneous Creations in Modern FurnitureTodd Olhdam records, 1990-2005
from The Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library at The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. {{DEFAULTSORT:Oldham, Todd 1961 births American fashion designers American interior designers Gay men LGBT fashion designers LGBT people from Texas Living people Stonewall Book Award winners