threeASFOUR is an avant garde group who run a fashion label that was originally established in 1998 as ASFOUR. Since 2005 the New York City based label consists of three designers, Gabi Asfour, Angela Donhauser, and Adi Gil, who were originally a part of the designer group ASFOUR, Featuring the three designers, as well as designer Kai Khune. Khune later left the group to pursue his own label. The experimental designs produced by threeASFOUR have been purchased and displayed by several museums.
threeASFOUR is known as much for its bohemian personal past as it is for curving layers and intricately ethereal silhouettes, along with the famed circle bags that surfaced on Sex and the City. In 1998, the label-then called AsFour-was started by aspiring downtown designers Kai Kühne, Gabriel (Gabi) Asfour, Adi Gil, and Angela (Ange) Donhauser, who come from Germany, Lebanon, Israel and Tajikistan, respectively. Despite the wacky expressionism from the label's founding members and the theatrical infighting that led to Kühne's departure in 2005, the label has acquired clout and credibility in the mainstream. Highlights include a CFDA fund nomination in 2007, which put the team on par with Vogue darlings Phillip Lim and Erin Fetherston and gained them a T-shirt collaboration with the Gap (of all the CFDA nominees, their collection reportedly sold out first). Their avant-garde sensibility, which includes slashed wrap jackets and asymmetrical organza dresses, have also gained attention from prestigious museums like Victoria & Albert and the Met, who have acquired pieces for exhibitions. In 2008, the label branched out from the conceptual ready-to-wear it shows in New York to a swimwear collection. |
