In my opinion, Tomas Maier is a genius. Born the son of an architect, in a small German town on the edge of the Black Forest, Tomas desired to move to Paris to study fashion at the same school where Yves Saint Laurent studied. In his illustrious career, he has worked for Guy Laroche, Sonia Rykiel, and was Creative Director of womenswear for Hermes. In 1997, he launched his namesake label and designed amazing swimwear which, I was fortunate enough to sell. In 1999, he quit his contracts and moved to Miami. He was hand-picked by Tom Ford to become head of Creative Design at Bettega Veneta in June of 2001 when the Gucci Group took over the label. Since taking over, he has quietly and diligently reestablished the label-less luxury brand with brilliant design, increasing sales by a whopping eight hundred percent! He has been known to try an entire collection on a model to find the perfect fit. Instead of taking all of the credit, he relies on his design team to make sure that every detail is attended to right down to show time! It's hard to not sit up and take notice, as I flip through my glossy magazines, when photographers such as Alex Prager and Robert Polidori are commissioned to shoot brilliant ad campaigns to accompany beautiful collections!