From Louis

………………I honestly don’t remember what this “Designer’s Day” was about. It wasn’t the beginning of Spring, but it was my 6th year anniversary month so it was special to me. The group started with a beautiful cotton sateen open front jacket in RED, WHITE and BLACK with GOLD GROMMETS bordering the hem and sleeves….next to that was a RAYON crinkle tiered GYPSY skirt. Between each tier was a row of gold sequins. This was a fun cruise, summer skirt in RED, BLACK and WHITE…….Above the sketch of the skirt is the first BODY SUIT I did for QVC. Of course there were a lot of objections to having a “bodysuit” as part of the line, but I insisted. I think it may have been the first bodysuit they ever sold. I had done a slew of them for Anne Klein and they were always successful. It was made in a very silk fine quality cotton and spandex, and it too was a selling success. It came in RED, WHITE and BLACK…..all to go with the peasant skirt and grommet jackets…..all worn together it was a fun look…..There is NOTHING SLEEKER than a body suit. You never have to worry about things popping out from you skirts or low cut jeans and pants. They surprised women about how flattering they were. If they were made correctly with a correct pattern , the snap crotch was easy to handle……..The next sweater was a ballet neck with a 3/4 sleeve. It had bugle bead hand emb around the neckline. They were descending twists……………The next SILK chiffon tunic was a cabbage rose. It came from my archives of prints I had sampled from Europe. It had a matching SILK CREPE de CHINE printed tank so one on top of the other almost gave a 3-D effect. The colors were RED, NAVY, FUCHSIA and GREEN………………May was off to a good start.

…………………….The May 06 Anniversary show had many beautiful pieces…..I’ll start with the sketches at the bottom left………….The Cropped pant was in my now signature Cotton Sateen. The pant had a side button and zipper, and menswear slant pockets. The Blazer had a three DTM button front, and was approx 26 inches long. It had rounded lapels and collar. The 3/4 sleeves had turn back cuffs, and all of the seams were double stitched. It had 4 patch pocket with buttoned flaps. The bottom pockets had an added detail….the pockets had invert pleats.. Both the pant and blazer came in Ivory and Black. Another coordinate piece was the gored cotton sateen circle skirt. Each panel was printed with a border of flowers. It was a fun novelty spring/summer skirt. It also came in Ivory and Black with multi color flowers. The sketch notes that the skirt was to have stones emb. on it, but I don’t remember if that happened?……..The next jacket was made in LINEN and had beautiful FLORAL EMB. It had a spread flat shirt collar, a 3/4 sleeve with slits, a button front and side slits. It was unlined and could be worn as a shirt or jacket. It came in the Ivory/multi and the Black/multi……The Cotton/Rayon tank had a very pronounced dimensional rib, and the tank went with all of the jackets , skirts and tunic shirts coming up……The tunic at the upper right was a fun piece. It was in a linen gauze. The ballet neckline had a V slit in it, and the sleeves were bracelet length. The neckline and sleeves were bordered with rows of chunky Turquoise hand sewn beads…….They were two different sizes………..This was the first half of my Anniversary show…………so scroll down for the second part!

…………………..There were Six additional pieces to round out the May Anniversary show…….The first was a gorgeous silk paisley tunic. If you love paisleys the way I do…. than this was a must have tunic. It was a classic big shirt in silk chiffon with super high side slits. The paisley was absolutely beautiful and was inspired by many of the ETRO paisley prints I had in my AK archives….ETRO was and still is the KING OF PAISLEYS!. The shirt was sold with a silk crepe de Chine tank. As an added sell we also sold a large matching paisley scarf which many women bought as a separate scarf. The colors were BLACK/MULTI, TURQUOISE/MULTI and PURPLE/MULTI….all beauties! The next sketch illustrates a crepe georgette tunic and matching pull-on pant. This georgette was heavy enough that it was not see through, though I’m sure we lined the white pant because QVC always requested it. The pants could be made of lead and they would still want the white pants lined so they could tell the customers they were lined. It took years for me to convince them that certain fabrics didn’t need linings and they only made the pant heavier and warmer to wear….PHEW! The two pieces came in the ivory, black and a beautiful hot pink. Of course the Ivory and Black sold easily, and the Pink top sold well too, but it was always a struggle to get women to buy a pant in colors, no matter how fabulous they looked……..The next jacket was a beauty….It was made in SILK SHANTUNG, and came in three yummy colors…..BLUSH PINK, a lovely APRICOT and a soft CELEDON…..Each jacket had a roll-up wide cuff and a wide facing made in a beautiful GOLD LAME fabric I had made specially for these jackets. The fabric had an antique look and was not garish at all…..The jacket had beautiful antique gold tiny sequin emb down the front and on the sleeve. It also had looks and small antique gold buttons down the front….starting where the V neckline ended. It had patch pockets and high side slits. I tried to get them to make shantung matching pants but both QVC and Elaine were against them. Elaine said without stretch they would be too difficult to fit and the returns would be high…..I guess she was right. I had done silk shantung pants a few times at AK, and we didn’t have trouble…..but we only sold them up to a size 10, and 12 with a store’s special request. Later when I found the stretch Shantung I still couldn’t convince them to do a slim ankle pants……..The fight is OVER!….LOL……..The last two pieces for may were crinkle georgette…..An elastic convertible off or on the shoulder peasant blouse, and the FIRST TIERED BOHO SKIRT! introduced in 06!!!! Even I didn’t realize it was that old. Two years ago after selling 85,000 skirts it was finally retired. I believe it could have gone on forever, but planning kept buying the old colors over and over until they stopped selling which brought sales down. I always wanted to add new colors instead of adding 6000 more black skirts. After so many years most women who wanted a black Boho had them already and some had 2 or 3 just to be safe. Same think happened with the crinkle georgette safari shirt and tank. They reordered so many of the old colors, and again tons of black that they brought the sales percentages down and finally “killed” the style. It was so classic it too could have gone on forever. I’m sure many of you have a big collection of Bohos and safari shirts…that if you take care of them they will last as long as you do…..LOL. I gave some to Kate and Chantal and the rest will go to my niece Danielle, She’s 5’9″ and a size 4…….I’ll let her go through the samples and see what she wants…..but Angela, Kate and Chantal already put a major dent in the samples I still have. I have saved Jac’s Linea clothes in a special place, and those will go to Danielle……….My 6th Anni was over, and Jac had another Birthday!

…………………..The other morning, as I was sitting at my computer looking out the window at 9am. it started to SNOW and SNOW and SNOW…..The prediction was that we would have 6 to 8 inches of snow and it would be over by 5pm. Before too long everything was covered with a blanket of white snow.We had a blizzard about a week or so ago, but the difference there were extremely high winds. The winds blew the snow right off the branches of the trees, which is a good thing, but doesn’t make for a pretty snow fall……This time there was barely a breeze which allowed the snow to stick to every tiny branch. It was a winter wonderland, and I felt I was inside a snow globe…….All of the pictures above were taken from inside my house. My sun porch has all of my planters of geraniums and they are just loving it. They look better now than all summer long…….the story is to be con’t.

………………………..When the snow stopped I couldn’t wait to get my boots on and head out with my camera. The snow on the rocks by the water’s edge look as if someone had sprinkled confectioner’s sugar on them. The way the snow piled up on the shrubs, trees and my garden bench and statuary was perfect. Even my kissing ball, that Jac would hang every year looked so pretty with it’s red bow. The clouds started to break and the sky was a beautiful pale blue, and as the sun started to set lovely shades of pink and peach appeared like magic…..Then Franco arrived like clockwork and stated the big clean up. It was getting dark, and before I headed in I had Franco take a picture of me in his trucks spot lights…….The snow fall was over