Leon Max
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Leon Max (born Leonid Maxovich Rodovinski - 1954 in Saint Petersburg, Russia) is a Russian-born American fashion designer and retailer.
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[edit] Biography
Leon was the son of a playwright born in what was then known in the Soviet Union as Leningrad. He attended an English school and read the novels of F Scott Fitzgerald. On leaving school he became an apprentice in costume and set design with the Kirov Ballet aged 16, by 18 realised that the only way he could improve his lot was to flee Soviet Russia.
Changing his name to Leon Max by taking his fathers Christian name as his surname, Max enrolled at the New York Fashion Institute of Technology. He worked for New York fashion house Tahari, and then Los Angeles based Bis, a women’s sportswear firm.
[edit] Max Studio
Max started Max Studio in 1979, and has over 7,000 points of sale.
An upmarket fashion chain, Max Studio sells through department stores, it also has 46 of its own retail stores in the U.S., where it competes with brands such as DKNY. Actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Katie Holmes and Angelina Jolie have all been spotted shopping in one of his five stores in Los Angeles. There are another 50 Max Studio shops in the Far East.
In the boom years of the mid-1980s, Max commissioned avant-garde architecture firm Morphosis - then known for sharp edged constructionist compositions - to design a showroom in LA. The eventual stores employed an evolved version of this aesthetic developed by architect George Yu Morphosis alumni.
The label has plans to now expand into Europe using the British womenswear market as its launch point.
The label plans to open 300 free standing stores around the world.
[edit] Personal life
Max is married to American model Ame Austin (born 1976).
The couple are regarded as architectural connoisseurs [1], and have previously lived in a Greene and Greene house, and one designed by modernist American architect Richard Neutra and are awaiting the planning permission on a 11,500 sq ft (1,070 m²) futuristic cliff side home at Malibu.
In 2005, the couple bought Easton Neston in Northamptonshire, England from Lord Hesketh for £15 million [2]. They converted the 10,000 sq ft (1,000 m²) of the fire damaged Wren wing of the house, plus the out buildings which were the home of failed Formula One team Hesketh Racing into their European business base. The remaining main house become their English country home for six months of the year [3], where they had been welcomed by a gift from Lord Hesketh - a bottle of vodka.
