From Louis

…………………There were some wonderful items in the May 05 group…….the cotton tunic shirt at the upper left with the thread and jewel emb. was one of Jac’s favorites and she would take it away on all of our trips. It had the look of a Mexican wedding shirt. It came in the white and turquoise with multi color emb. I believe we ended up putting jewel buttons down the front to match the emb. The buttons were in muli colors. The inspiration for the top came from an emb. shoe that Jac owned………Now she had a top to match her shoes!!!! That’s the advantage of having a designer for a husband!………..The next tunic was another top that Jac wore often in the Caribbean. It was in  a sheer silk crinkle georgette with a matching tank…….The jewel and sequin emb. was multi color and had a Moroccan flare…Some of the jewels outlining the opening were triangular in shape…..I loved the way this tunic came out. I thought the colors were very special and not commonplace..It came in Spice and Violet with multi color jewels and sequins…..I remember copper and turquoise sequins on the spice…The silk CDC and Chiffon tunic, the cotton/span legging the solid silk tunic and pull-on pant, the sequin V-neck sweater were all reordered styles……The georgette gored skirt was a knew skirt………………My 5th Anni. was a success.

……………..The day started with a magnificent sunrise, but the storm clouds were already coming. Here, on the shore of CT., it didn’t start to snow until early evening, but when it did start it came down with a vengeance! The wind off the water was so strong that it blew the snow right off of my driveway never covering one half of the driveway [photo at upper left] leaving the black top exposed. Where ever the wind hit my roof, no snow gathered. You can see the path by the water is clean of snow and the grass is still showing through. However, in the back where the wind didn’t blow everything away we had a good 16 to 17 inches of snow. In the picture to the lower right you can see a path I cleared away. What you can’t see is that there is clear plastic on top of the bricks. I have the area outside my back door and just beyond the gate, and the area around the garbage bin covered in plastic. When all is over and the snow is shoveled away…..I have Franco take the plastic up and my bricks are perfectly clean…..no ice or slippery spots for me to slide and fall on……All in all it was a beautiful snow fall!

……………………In what I like to call “The Golden Age of QVC”……..once upon a time they used to have elaborate shows called “The Designer’s Gallery”. These shows started off each new season…..one for Spring and one for Fall….They created elaborate stages and runways in the cavernous warehouse. The host would stand at the top of the runways and each designer would have their turn with the host presenting their group of new clothing on models……The shows were so long they usually had two hosts to do these shows…..I’ll give you one guess who did the second half……They were very exciting shows to do and there was makeup and hair avail to the models. The QVC hair and makeup vendors were there to create looks for the girls…….Those were the days………….For this particular presentation I created a very special tweed that I had duplicated as close as possible to a tweed I used at Anne Klein. The original tweed was made by an incredible fabric company that was located outside of Brussels. They were know for making most of the Chanel fabrics. This was a company that was a few hundred years old! I made special trips just to work with them!! The company was in an idyllic setting. The buildings were all two or three stories high made out of wood, with old wide plank wood floors. They still produced their fabrics on old wooden looms. Their fabrics were all hand woven. No modern machinery here! They produced fabrics with a plethora of yarns in fabrics that could only be made on hand looms. Their buildings and looms, and walls of bins with hundreds of different yarns in different colors was a dream and looked like something from “Romeo and Juliette” or “The Taming of the Shrew”. I was privileged to have worked with these incredibly creative people. It was a family business, and like many of these very old companies eventually there was no one to leave them to or no one interested in continuing to run them. I was very sad when I heard they were closing…..Another chapter in Fashion History coming to a close…..That is the reason the Chanel Company has purchased many of these businesses like Lasage, one of the finest and oldest embroiders that ever exited. They bought a company that specialized in feathers and making custom shoes, and creating fabulous costume jewelry and many others…..all to save them from disappearing…..This was something that Karl Lagerfeld felt was so important…..and he was so right………The jacket was a 3 button shaped silhouette with set in band pockets…..It was lined in a FLORAL PRINT……..the same delicate floral that I used for a crinkle silk bow blouse. The bottom of the sleeve was slit so you could see the floral print. I believe we used real abalone shell buttons……I did the jacket in butter with blush, and mint with lilac, but there were fancy yarns also woven into the plaid. The blouse was a simple shirt body with front and back yokes that had shirring to add femininity. The sleeve was also shirred into the cuff……The cardigan and coordinating tank were in cotton and rayon. They had beautiful GOLD BUGLE BEADED borders, and tiny gold buttons on BUTTER, IVORY or BLUSH……The ribbed cardigan at the top had gold lurex trims, and gold buttons…..but…..what was spectacular about this cardigan was that in between each rib were rows of tiny gold sequins….the tank worked with both sweaters. This sweater was in ivory with gold and navy with gold……………The beautiful two button blazer and coordinating pant was in a new fabric…..a two way stretch gaberdine. They came in BLUSH, IVORY and NAVY. The top pocket had an incredible embroidered crest. It was emb. in GOLD LUREX. and outlining the lurex were tiny gold bugle beads……which were added by hand……The beautifully cut pant was back zip. I love back zip pants and did them many times at Anne Klein…….however…….I quickly learned the QVC lady wasn’t fond of back zip trousers…….they sold because they went with the blazers, but reluctantly….,..It was my first and last back zip pant for QVC…..LOL…………..continue to scroll down

……………….The second group came at the end of March, and was sort of a continuation of the Designer’s Gallery in mood and colors………The jacket at the upper left was SUEDE WITH GOLD LUREX CROCHETED SEAMS. It had bracelet length sleeves and gold buttons……BLUSH, MINT and NAVY were the colors all with GOLD……The silk shirt was a take off of an Hermes print. It had silk and cotton 2×2 rib collar and sleeves. The button front had a tubular knit trim. Reading the details on the sketch just reminded me of what we were able to do at unbelievable prices. I have to say it…..we were all spoiled……These clothes simply could not be made today unless they were many many $$$$$……..The V-neck “tennis sweater” was made in a 100% cotton that had a beautiful sheen to it. It was made in a 5 gauge so it had a nice weight and texture. It had cables out lining the V and down the front with contrast trims. The colors were Ivory, butter, mint and navy…….Next was a beautiful crinkle silk/cotton/spandex blend shirt. It was a classic shirt with a curved bottom and body darts. It had tiny gold buttons down the front, a double button cuff and on the collar……..The next cardigan was in a MILANO KNIT so it was more like a sweater jacket. It too had gold lurex trims and gold buttons……The SILK GEORGETTE SKIRT below had stitched down pleats [we eliminated the yoke]. At the hem was a GOLD RIBBON…..It was beautifully made……Elaine always produced beautiful clothes. She has great pride in what she produces….Her dedication and superb workmanship will be missed………….Many items in these groups became staples in women’s wardrobes and could easily be worn today…………continue to scroll down

…………………………March 05……. was a little bit SAFARI, and a little bit Oriental….with a little bit of sparkle thrown in!……….The Safari jacket at the upper left was made in a beautiful quality cotton sateen. The jacket had contrast color cotton sateen under the collar, the epaulets, each pocket flap, the front facing, and the turn back cuff……The colors were Olive with Lime and Khaki with Hot Pink. The bottom pockets were side entry…..a feature that became very popular…..The coordinating pant was a zip front crop pant with pockets in the same cotton sateen……The sweater was a 9 gauge cotton/acrylic 3×3 rib fully fashioned tank. It has a V neckline that was squared off at the bottom….The colors were pink, olive and black….Many times I gave Elaine speck sketches with all of the measurements I wanted to see for the first samples. All the years making sweaters for Anne Klein in Italy I was very accustomed to doing the speck sheets. This assured me that the samples would look the way I WANTED THEM…..It has been asked over the years, from those that don’t know, if I designed the clothes! I designed every piece and many times I gave speck measurement sheets for the clothes that I think needed them…I was always a very “hands on designer”….after all that was my job!…The next jacket was in a woven PLAID LINEN FABRIC!!!! It was the body of the windowpane jacket….a little longer and with patch pockets…..The under collar and turned back cuff were in solid black linen……It also came in Natural with Lime and Natural with Hot Pink……The Circle print was a print I did for Anne Klein. I worked with Gimmo Etro [the brilliant owner and creator of the ETRO company] developing many prints for AK…..this was one among many…I had it reproduced for Linea on silk CDC.. The tunic shirt had a oriental look with the black contrast bands, and the wide vivid color contrast borders. It came in Olive and Parchment with Lime borders , and Black with Parchment and Hot Pink borders……..next to that is a marvelous ribbed wide V-neck, 3/4 sleeve sweater…..It was a 9 gauge sweater with a 3×3 rib in a linen yarn so the sweater had depth as you can see in the photos of the knit swatches. It came in Khaki, Olive and a Peachy Pink, all beautiful in the linen yarn.The sweaters were embroidered with CUPPED IRIDESCENT TONAL SEQUINS…..The sequins had a hole at the edge so when they were sewn on they didn’t lay flat, but sort of danced around catching the light…………..It was a fun group with fun items.