Christian Francis Roth  Christian Francis Roth is an American fashion designer based in New York. Several of Roth’s designs can be found in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute, with work appearing in seven exhibitions from 1993 - 2020. Roth was awarded the Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent in 1990 at the age of 21 by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Roth's designs were frequently seen throughout the 1990s in publications such as Vogue, Elle, W, New York Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times, and others. Roth was born in New York City in 1969 and began his career as an apprentice to designer Koos Van Den Akker in the summer of 1986. He spent a little over a year learning the trade, including basic cutting, sewing, and pressing techniques, after which, he was allowed to design items such as scarves and ultimately garments. These items were sold at Van Den Akker’s Madison Avenue store. Roth continued his employment with Van Den Akker while taking night classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design from 1986-1987 and 1987-1988 respectively. In 1988, Van Den Akker gave Roth a room in his studio to begin designing his own collection. One year later, Roth opened his own design studio on the edge of New York’s garment district. Roth’s first collection debuted in the Autumn of 1988, featuring tailored wool jackets adorned with pop art motifs such as barking dogs, dance step patterns and clothespins. The collection was purchased by Saks Fifth Avenue and put on display in the windows. In following collections, Roth would expand on his humor based aesthetic. A wool jacket was decorated with appliqué leather “M&M’s” packaging and covered button "candies". Roth's wool jersey “Mannequin Dress” (Fall 1989) was modeled after the classic design studio dress form. Roth's crayon inspired jackets and dresses (Fall 1990) transformed a raglan sleeve into a writing instrument while using the body as a canvas for colorful inset "scribbles". Hallmark Cards, Inc., the company that owned Crayola crayons, felt that these crayon designs infringed on their brand. They ultimately settled out of court and agreed on a licensing fee. By this time, Roth's designs were already being carried by stores such as Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys and Bloomingdale's.