From Louis

…………………The Sept presentation was done in two parts….a Midnight show and a Day show. This is part of the Day Show…….This was a fabulous show with FOUR JACKETS, and one sweater, but there were plenty of reorders to balance out the presentation…….Starting at the left top is a jacket in a brand new fabric….I called it “POODLE CLOTH”. It was a sort of Boucle, but it was slightly thicker with a more pronounced texture. Due to the Acrylic blended with the wool it was very soft and cuddly. The neckline, front and all of the hems were trimmed in suede. The suede had grommets and there was a suede cord whip stitching all around the jacket. It was approx. 26 inches long, had band pockets and had hook and eye closures down the front. The jacket came in a rich deep purple and a color I called “TWIG” which was a brown with a little grey in it……..The next jacket was in a deep rich COPPER METALLIC LEATHER. It had matching Copper snaps down the front, on the stand collar and on the sleeves. There were copper side zippers. There were pocket flaps with the same snaps. I just recently gave my niece a slew of samples. She’s an xxs xs and 5’9″ so she fits perfectly. She’s a young mother of THREE BOYS!….She said “wait till the boys see me in this”………The next jacket was in a RICH BROCADE fabric…..This type of fabric didn’t come along often, and certainly not one as beautiful as this at a price I could afford………..The Black was a very FINE CHENILLE yarn and the pattern was in a muted metallic yarn woven with a fine nylon or poly for support. The way the design was woven created dimension with raised stitches….so the effect was VERY VERY RICH…The jacket had a flat shirt collar with a back half moon stand, a raglan sleeve and a slight swing A-line body. It was offered in the one color….Black and Antique Brass. It must have been a costly jacket to only have offered it in one color…….The sweater below was in a beautifully blend of SILK/ CASHMERE and LYCRA. It came in Black and Purple. I had offered this style sweater many times on my AK collection. It was basically a wide straight tube that could be pulled up into a hood for when it was really cold outside. It kept you cozy warm, and in this blend it was super soft against the skin………or you could wear it down as a lush cowl neck. Angela still has this sweater and it still looks great. It’s one of her favorites!…………The next and last jacket was in another new and special fabric. It was made in a very pronounced NUBBY wool and poly blend. The nubs were made of wool and the fine black background was a polyester yarn that held it together and gave the fabric strength.. You really can’t tell from the photos just how beautiful this fabric was……The body of the jacket was a COCOON SHAPE….no armholes that I remember, and if there were they were very dropped…….All of the trims were in a BLACK wool and acrylic 3 gauge RIB KNIT so they balanced well with the fabric.. It gave the jacket the look of a big comfortable sweater!…..The colors were CHOCOLATE wool with BLACK TRIMS, and TAUPE wool. with BLACK TRIMS. They both had black buttons.

………………………….Sept 07 had 3 additional items……From left to right…..The sweater was in Acrylic/Cotton It had a turn back ribbed collar. There were two buttons on the collar to give the effect of a stand [look at sketch] it had a nice shape and a hidden button Henley placket.The emb. looked like Baroque grill work and was on the bell sleeves. The emb  colors were some what tonal. It came in Black with shades of grey emb. and Chocolate with golden color threads shown above [not metallic]…………The next shirt was a Silk Charmuse LEOPARD PRINT. The print was beautifully done, and had a flowing water color effect. It was a classic shirt with a button front and a curved bottom. There was one breast pocket that disappeared into the print…..The sleeve had a little fullness to make it more feminine. The colors were beautiful….Fuchsia, Purple, and Khaki……..The next sketch is of a Wool/Acrylic sweater knit dress. It had an open funnel neck, not too high, a half raglan sleeve and an A-Line body. It also had band slanted pockets…..The colors were Black and Deep Magenta………There were also EIGHT reorders with this group!

………………….August 07 continued from July 07 with some related pieces that could be mixed and match…….Starting with the four button BOUCLE jacket at the bottom left….This is definitely one of my all time FAVORITES. It is the perfect combination of CLASSIC and EDGY. It was in two colors….BLACK and the deepest richest BURGUNDY……The details of this jacket were phenomenal. When I presented the sketch to Elaine I think she thought I had lost my mind, that I had crossed the line! I figured I might as well give the jacket the “kitchen sink” with all the details I could think of…..start there and see what happens. The ENTIRE jacket was trimmed in ZIPPER TEETH…..The COLLAR….the LAPEL….the entire FRONT and HEM of the jacket were trimmed in zipper teeth….The sleeve had a curved slit with a single gold WORKING BUTTON, and it too was trimmed in ZIPPER TEETH…….The FOUR FLAPS were trimmed in ZIPPER TEETH, and each had a gold working button. The jacket had body seams from the shoulders to the hems, front and back which gave the jacket a great shape along with the strong shoulder pad……Elaine made the jacket as the sketch, and when I saw it I was blown away….it was gorgeous…..and under $100….unbelievable!!! To coordinate with that was a classic….SILK/CASHMERE/LYCRA long sleeve fully fashion sweater finished with tubular trims. This was the first time I used this yarn and it was beautiful. The colors were IVORY, BURGUNDY and BLACK……..Next to the sweater was a FULL LEATHER COAT!!!! but not just any ordinary leather…it was a WASHED leather, and was soft as butter. Due to the price we did it in BLACK only. The swatch of the leather that I have on file is still as soft and black as the day I filed it……The coat had a spread shirt collar with a half moon back stand. It had princess seams front and back to give it a nice gentle shape that followed the lines of the body. The pockets were in the seams. It had a slight A-Line silhouette….The modern details of the coat made it special…The details that gave it pizzazz were all of the DOMED GOLD SNAPS….down the front….on the pocket flaps….up the sleeves and on the BACK VENT….This coat was a knock out!!!! If you still own it I would love to hear from you. Jac’s coat still hangs in my hall closet and looks brand new…..The next sweater may have been one of the first Whisper Knits before we named the yarn “Whisper Knit”. I loved this sweater because it had incredible hand sewn emb. All of the sequins were MATTE GOLD on the Black and Burgundy so they looked very rich like my Russian Gold jewelry. All of the different shapes were small. There were SQUARE  sequins, round CUPPED sequins that were sewn upside down and the TINIEST round CUPPED SEQUINS that were sewn in clusters. The sweater itself had a wide V-neck….not too deep, and long sleeves. The sketch indicates a bell sleeve, but I don’t remember if we kept them or made the sleeve straight. It had a nice body shape with tubular trims. The colors were BLACK with MATTE GOLD, BURGUNDY with MATTE GOLD, and SMOKE with MATTE SILVER…..The next sketch was a FULLY FASHIONED, WOOL/ACRYLIC, RIBBED, 8 GORED SWEATER SKIRT. It was 29 inches long, and draped and moved beautifully! We did it in BLACK and BURGUNDY. This skirt worked with everything!…..The top row, starting at the left was another incredible BOUCLE jacket. It too had details, details and more details. It had a top yoke, and body seams for shape…It had real leather trims…the front placket, the bottom bands on the jacket and sleeves and a stand collar that had a working GOLD ZIPPER in the center of the collar which went all around. It was totally for decoration. The yoke was also trimmed with a leather piping. It had exposed gold zippers slanted at the top of the jacket to look like high pocket but they were just ornamental. The two inseam zippers were for the real pockets. The jacket had the same GOLD DOMED SNAPS as the leather coat. We did the jacket in Black on black, and Chestnut with Dark Brown leather. All of the jackets became reorders, and the leather coat did too….but the price went up and QVC wouldn’t accept the increase. Elaine and I always thought the customer would have paid the increase because the initial price was ridiculously low…but QVC had a rule reorders always had to be kept at the same price. Many times when certain garments were reordered for more than 2 years, and the prices went up, Elaine and I had to take a cut just to keep the QVC price, and to keep the order. The next sweater was something I did at AK. It was a wool/acrylic blend, MILANO STITCH V-neck tunic vest….We offered it in BLACK, PEACOCK and TOPAZ….It looked fabulous with the next sketch of a TUXEDO COLLAR SHIRT, and the long straight knit skirt from another season which was reordered. The shirt was in SILK CHARMUSE it had a 2 covered button stand, a curved bottom and body darts. It had a FRENCH CUFF and I had special cuff links made for the shirt. It came in IVORY and PEACOCK…….Last but not least was the  PEASANT SWEATER. It had raglan sleeves and a scoop neckline that had stationary shirring. The full sleeves had an elastic bottom. The straight body of the tunic sweater had high side slits. The tie belt was in the same knit, and was finished off with rayon chain tassels. It came in BLACK, BURGUNDY and VIOLET. This was also in the new “Whisper Knit” yarn.

…………………………..The Boucle jacket with the zipper trims was one of my all time favorites!!! When I showed the sketch to Elaine she started speaking Chinese. I knew this wasn’t as good sign and a “discussion” was to follow, but to my surprise we just started to discuss the details….PHEW! She went into the back workrooms and in 5 or 10 minutes came back with a sample of zipper teeth sewn into the boucle fabric for me to see. It looked perfect. As it turned out, since zippers already came on tapes, and you could order the zippers in yardage [they are later cut in lengths and finished with stoppers and pulls] it wasn’t going to be any more difficult than adding a piping……..HOWEVER….it was the amount of zippers that were going to have to be sewn on that caused Elaine to speak Chinese!!!! They were everywhere , collar, lapel, fronts, bottoms sleeve hems pocket flaps too. I’m surprised I didn’t insert them into the body seams! We ended up making it as a 3 button front with beautiful gold half ball buttons…..When the samples came in from China, Elaine wanted to present them to me so I went to the office, and they were hanging around the showroom…..OMG…..one was more beautiful than the other. I couldn’t believe my eyes….my jaw dropped!!!….This was way too good for QVC….This collection should have been in NYC Fashion Week!

…………………………There were two additional pieces to the Aug 07 group. The SILK CREPE de CHINE blouse. It had a very pretty and unusual neckline. The ballet neckline had stitched pleats framing the face and then opened on the body. At the bottom of the pleats was a tunnel for a drawing string in the self fabric. You could draw it in to close the neckline or leave it open. The bottom of the sleeve had the same pleats with elastic. The sketch shows pleats at the sleeve cap, but I don’t remember if we kept them during the fitting. The colors were PEACOCK, FUCHSIA and PURPLE……….The COTTON/ACRYLIC blend tunic sweater has a ribbed COWL NECK. It had side slits and bell sleeves. It had a HERALDIC pattern down the front and on the sleeve. I loved to research these historic patterns. I learned so much history while doing the research…………August was a huge group………a very successful group!