Costello Tagliapietra.(Brief article)

Byline: Florence Kane

This red," says Robert Tagliapietra, holding up a dress from the spring collection he's designed with Jeffrey Costello, "there's so much color in this red-oranges, darks, and lights." He picks up another frock. "You look at this, and there's almost a purple in this pink. You can see it in the shadows."

In other words, a Costello Tagliapietra dress that might look from across their Brooklyn atelier like just a nice jersey dress is really more complex. So much so that the designers, Fashion Fund finalists for the second year in a row, have seen their own handiwork out and about and not recognized it right away. "Sometimes we'll see someone wearing one and we'll say, 'Oh, that's a really nice dress. Who did that?' " says Costello. "Actually," he continues, "that's one of the key features to our collection: Even though there's a definite look, the woman who buys it knows she can ...