“THE ABSTRACT FLORAL JUNGLE PRINT”
……………………….I was in a very “painterly” mood with this Spring 1991 collection, and once again I got out my white paper, my paint brushes and paint. I must have painted at least 15 versions of this print until they all started to look alike. It was time to choose. The prints had an abstract floral jungle look, and were made for me on a Silk Jacquard developed for me by a gentleman name Gi Cuomo. He had a small, but very good business in Como, Italy. Before he opened his own company I had worked with him at ETRO for years. He was Mr. ETRO’s right hand man. However, as Mr. Etro’s four children got older, and became more and more interested in the business, Gi saw the handwriting on the wall and left before he was pushed out. We had a long time relationship, and I wanted to help him in his new venture. He was also more flexible in his pricing than Etro was, because he had a much smaller business and a much lower overhead. He was also able to produce prints for Anne Klein 11. The volume was much bigger than the collect, so Gi could source out to different printing mills. He could offer independent print mills large volume which made them all happy, and was still able to print on Silk Crepe de Chine at a good price. The fabrics were then shipped to China for the garments to be made……Gi was very grateful for the large orders, but still wanted to do the prestige work which was his background. He didn’t have the design staff Etro did, and most of his prints came from print studios, which wasn’t a bad thing…I just had to weed through many prints that weren’t my taste…..It just made the process of developing a new print to a third party more complicated. Giving Gi these hand painted prints by me was the perfect solution, and he did a fantastic job, as I knew he would……..The sarong dress, the blazer coat and the sleeveless dress were all styles developed for the collection.
