About the Developer

Born in Pittsburgh , Holly Brubach is a graduate of Shaler High School and Duke University. As a young dancer forced into premature retirement by an injury, she turned to journalism and over the course of the next two decades worked at Vogue, as a Contributing Editor; the Atlantic Monthly, as a Staff Writer; The New Yorker, as a Staff Writer; and The New York Times, where, as Style Editor, she oversaw coverage of fashion, architecture and design in the magazine and its supplements. In 1998, she joined Prada, the Italian fashion house, where she directed the development of a home collection and served as design liaison with architects for the company’s new flagship stores. Two years later, she formed Studio Holly Brubach , a consulting firm: she has since advised the Ford Motor Company, Banana Republic, Nike Europe, YOOX, and other companies on various aspects of brand identity. Since 2003, Brubach has served as Creative Director for Birks, the venerable Canadian jewelers, where she supervises product design and development.

Brubach is the author of three books: Choura, The Memoirs of Alexandra Danilova , which won the de la Torre Bueno prize for best dance book of 1983; Girlfriend , named one of the 100 Most Notable Books of 1998 by the New York Times Book Review; and A Dedicated Follower of Fashion , a collection of her essays. In 1982, she won the National Magazine Award in Essays & Criticism for her writing about dance. She has also written extensively for television, including “Balanchine,” a two-hour documentary on the choreographer’s life and work, for WNET. Most recently, she has contributed book reviews to the New York Times Book Review, as well as several articles to Vanity Fair, among them, profiles of novelist Ian McEwan and of New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. “Bibliofile,” her column about books, appears in T, the New York Times Magazine’s supplements.

Brubach has lived in New York , Milan , and Paris . In December, 2005, she purchased The Granite Building, an architectural landmark in downtown Pittsburgh , which she is converting to residential use and developing as condominiums. She will retain two floors as her home and sell the remaining five. Upon completion of renovations, she will move back to Pittsburgh .