Tara Subkoff (shown on the left) was born in the USA in 1975. She is a film actress who has starred in 7 films since her debut in 1993.

In 2000 she and her friend Matt Damhave, set up their garment house and called it "Imitation of Christ". Their first show in January 2001 was a real success and the collection sold out immediately.

On the right is a dress from Spring/Summer 2003.

Collections are shown during the New York Fashion Week in March and September each year. They also occasionally put on shows in Los Angeles. Imitation clothes always make it on to the "most talked about" list. At their last show, they put the audience on the runway and sent the models around them in the auditorium.

There were flamenco-style white silk dresses and open-front coat dresses, as well as elegant chiffon transparent creations covered with black silk flowers. As always each was a one-off customizing vintage pieces in inimitable style. On the left is a dress from the collection for Fall/Winter 2003.

Then Damhave left and Danny Seo joined her early 2002, but he also left after 10 months, in February 2003. At the moment Tara is running the concern solo with help from her friends and her younger brother Daniel.

Subkoff has also been talking to the people at the Paris house of Capucci, who want her to design some of their ready-to-wear collections.

Spring/Summer 2004

Imitation of Christ collection for this season was shown during New York Fashion Week in September 2003. An outfit is shown here on the right.

Tara said that she was inspired by old black-and-white movies and the tap dancing of child star Shirley Temple. She also tried out some gowns with the Goddess feel, so popular this season. These are for beautiful girls stepping out in style.

Fall/Winter 2004

The Fall collection was shown during New York Fashion Week in February 2004. Subkoff's theme was the strong woman, half-goddess half-Amazon. Body-loving knits in white, black and metallics were paired with knee high gold Puma boots. The runway was strewn with white roses and magnolio leaves and Paula Hayes Forest formed the backdrop.

Spring/Summer 2005

During New York Fashion Week in September 2004, Tara Subkoff presented her Imitation of Christ Spring collection. The show was her debut at Bryant Park, as she has not shown there before. She went for the classics, transforming her models into goddesses - feminine yet strong. She used cool pastels, metallic fabrics, and nymph-like silhouettes. Tara has recented created a line of shoes for Easy Spirit, which she used in her show.

Her collection also included wide comfortable pants and ruched tops, like the outfit shown on the right.

Into footwear

Tara has entered a collaboration with Easy Spirit, the confortable footwear manufacturer. They are bringing out a collection of gladiator sandals, skimmer flats and low pumps in a range of colours which should be in the shops anytime now.

Ready-to-Wear
Fall/Winter 2005

The Fall/Winter collection was shown during New York Fashion Week in February 2005. Tara Subkoff presented 70 outfits at her show, paying homage to Rudi Gernreich with obi-tied minidresses, and Geoffrey Beene with dolman-sleeved bound-waist suits. Many of her dresses were in a Grecian theme, as she used for Spring/Summer. Tara attracts off-beat collaborators and is now becoming quite successful.

Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 2005

The Haute Couture collections for Autumn/Winter 2005 were held in Paris in July 2005. Tara Subkoff is not a member of the Haute Couture association, but she held a show in Paris during Couture Week, in order to show her couture line. A creation from the collection is shown on the right. These clothes were very impressive and feminine, and got good audience approval.

Spring/Summer 2006
New York

Tara presented her Spring/Summer 2006 collection for Imitation of Christ, during New York Fashion Week in September 2005. An outfit from the collection is shown on the left.

This was a typically frenzied but stunning show. The dark denim pieces had her logo stitched all over them. Western looks were mixed with gingham mini-dresses and hand-painted pieces (painted by Rita Ackermann and Ben Cho) were crowd-pleasers.





2005