From Louis

……………As you can see from the CAD there were ELEVEN new items for April plus reorders! The LINEN jacket at the bottom left was a beauty. The detailing of the emb. was truly special. The entire jacket was banded in two rows of black Poly Charmuse……in between was a type of railroad  or ladder tape that was inserted between the two rows…..Then Square shape jet beads were sewn on either side of the jacket and sleeve borders to create these pyramid shapes. It came in the 3 colors shown all with black. It was reordered for the next season in 3 more colors…one being mocha. The raglan short sleeve sweater had a wide yoke of hand crocheted triangles. I believe there may have been small round black beads in between each triangle. This sweater looked great under the linen emb. jacket with the play of triangles………The next three pieces all coordinated. There was a cotton sateen jacket, crop pant and sweater tank all with  wooden beads in turquoise, brown, red and natural. The design was inspired by the American Indians……….Next to that was a crinkle georgette V-neck button front tunic. The Black and Natural had beautiful ethnic embroidery down the front and bordering the sleeves……The next tunic sweater was in a wonderful Linen yarn that had some weight. It had a ballet neck with an attached band of linen knit that “rolled” to create a sort of collar. It had wide ribbed borders which in the linen looked very gutsy and rich. This sweater also had a border of wooden beads at the neckline……..To finish the group was a long bias linen skirt which looked great with the linen sweater, and the sweater with the crocheted triangular trim………It also looked great with the linen jacket!

……………………….The second half of the April 06 collection was very colorful……..The sweater tunic at the upper left was in cotton/rayon, and it had a shiny rayon yarn for the  tubular trims around the boat neck, sleeve hem, the bottom and side slits……The emb. was also in a shiny rayon thread to contrast with the cotton/rayon body. The sweater came in natural color with violet, lime and orange…These were reordered many times….The rainbow stripe sweater came in two color combinations oranges, reds. pinks and purple. The second combination was in greens from mint to lime to kelly combined with blues from pale blue to turquoise to navy. Dividing each row was a different coordinating sequin color……The middle top sketch of a chiffon tunic paisley print had beautiful colors. The ground colors were khaki and sienna. There was a separate tank for each……..They were embroidered with scattered iridescent sequins………….The crinkle georgette tunic is a repeat sketch.

………………………I’m set!!! The fireplace is loaded with wood for this afternoon…I made onion dip and bought chips…The hamburgers are set to be cooked….the cheese topping and the potato buns are ready to be toasted, and my roasted potatoes are ready to go into the oven…….I’m going to bake a cake for desert!….Now I’m just waiting for the snow to fall which should be any minute now!!!! I’m hunkered down and in for the day……I’m not going anywhere!

…………………….The collection for Feb 06 was in TWO PARTS………..The first part was the showing of the “Designer’s Gallery”. Again, a set was constructed in the huge warehouse with a very long runway. It looked like this was going to be a bi-yearly QVC tradition. This was all done under Darlene Daggot’s reign at QVC. She was a brilliant woman who was a great leader. The fabric for the jacket was developed from another fabric I had in my AK archives. It was a beautiful thick and thin yarn with a slub gold lurex yarn woven in to look like a window pane. The jacket had three beautiful gold buttons, again ones I developed at AK. The jewelry company I worked with at AK took a soutache cord button and made a mold of it to create the metal version.. It also has a beautiful twisted cord trim made for the jacket in a gold and ivory thread.. The entire jacket was bordered in this trim including the 4 patch pockets. The 3/4 sleeve was finished off with a turn back cuff that curved split……There was a beautiful Ballet neck sweater that had GOLD BALL BEADS outlining the neckline, down the center of the sleeve, the side seams, and trimming the bottom of the sleeve and hem of the sweater…….all hand sewn! This became a very popular sweater, and was reordered a few times…..Next to the sweater is a sketch of a chiffon blouse with a gold pinstripe. Along the pinstripe I scattered tiny gold sequins….It really was a beautiful blouse and came with a silk tank…Below is a sketch of a suede jacket with a zip front, zip pockets and sleeves. It too was trimmed with a gold cord [see turquoise swatch at lower right]……..The crinkle georgette V-neck tunic, in ivory, navy and pink had sequin and bugle bead borders, and sequins scattered all over. It was definitely a vacation or special occasion tunic.

………………..After the “Designer Gallery” show was over I was scheduled for another full hour show in Feb……For many the gallery show was the only presentation they would be scheduled for, but I was lucky to get a second go……..Starting at the top is a suede jackets with borders of metal grommets and studs. It came in turquoise, lime and pink…..There are two swatches of grommet designs I was to pick from …..I think we went with the circle grommets……Next to that was a boucle suit with gold buttons I believe it came in the Linea Navy and Ivory….below the suit is a cotton shirt that had small flat gold buttons, and gold flat heat processed studs on the sleeves…..the flat studs graduated to nothing as they went up the sleeve…..It was a fun spring/summer shirt with just a little glitz!……to the left is a short sleeve ribbed sweater with gold lurex trim to coordinate with the suede jacket and the suit…..The gored skirt was made in georgette with a fine gold lurex stripe. There were tiny ruffles set into the gores as the sketch illustrates. It was in the ivory lime and pink…..It was definitely a girly skirt, but not too much……The last sketch is a cardigan with tonal pearl emb. in pink, turquoise and lime. The emb. was all over with a little more concentration around the neckline. It had matching round pearl buttons. This was all hand emb.