By Melissa Alvarado-Sierra

It was just a dress. Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's dress that is, and it put Cuban-American designer Narciso Rodríguez on the fashion map back in 1996. After working for Cerruti, Donna Karan (at Anne Klein), TSE, and Calvin Klein, his friend Carolyn Bessette asked him to design her wedding dress.

With a simple, yet revealing slip-dress, Rodríguez made the bride look like both a princess and a seductress. The style of that dress would become the designer's trademark and a much imitated silhouette through the 1990's.

In 2005, the designer became the first American to win the CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year two years in a row.

His list of clients include Claire Danes, Rachel Weisz, Eva Mendes, Ashley Olsen, Sarah Jessica Parker and Salma Hayek among others, and he's frequently mentioned as the successor of the most eminent sportswear designers such as Anne Klein, Halston and Calvin Klein.

With his Latin roots, Rodríguez designs with a sense of color and curve that is rarely seen in the fashion industry. "I was born into a family of beautiful Latin women," says the designer. "They formed my idea of what women should look like. The reality is all women have hips. All women have curves. All women have cleavage."