Gia Ventola

American designer, 24-years-old when she stole the show at a runway fashion exhibit for the Girls Rule! spring 2001 show. At her first New York exposure, she was a hit with a mix of denim, plastic, asymmetrical cut-outs and jumbled combinations of texture and color. She had already made a mark with her tiny pint-and-white top worn by Britney Spears and her styles fit into the trashy-flashy little-girl mode of the millennium. Some say she looks like Madonna. With her strawberry-orange hair teased out to there, Ventola said, "I'm freaking! I'm cool," in spite of such errors as having her models wear one skirt backward and one jacket unbuttoned. Today's hot designer, her work has been featured in W magazine and Women's Wear Daily and seen in Sports Illustrated. Ventola's HQ in Beverly, MA consists of a desk, eight sewing machines, racks, a cutting table and two full-time seamstresses. Working a 15-hour day, she is hoping for a Junior line in a mainstream department store. Her parents invested $400,000 in her showcase and already are winners with the orders rolling in. The daughter of a seafood company owner and a housewife, Ventola has always loved fashion and used to host fashion shows for her friends and help them dress. A prominent varsity field hockey player, she was written up in the papers in 1992 for her vivid makeup on the sports field. She went to Parsons School of Design in New York, earning a B.A. in 1998. After a stint in Italy, she started a New York line of black-and-white-leather priced from $300 to $1,000 for pieces, but hyped vinyl for Britney Spear's stylist. Her designs were exactly right for the teen-star's here and now and are launching Ventola into the spotlight. Only time will tell if she stays on top of the taste for each today or moves in and out of favor as rapidly as 15-minute superstars Isaac Mizrahi and Todd Oldham. Link to Wikipedia biography