From Louis

…………………The July 2001 group was inspired by Kilim rugs….their patterns and the colors…….Starting at the upper left is a Silk CD color block tunic shirt. In those days there were no minimums on how many colors you could do….There were 5 colors in this shirt….That would be impossible today unless it was a shirt well over $300 in silk.. The next sketch is that of my silk Kilim print tunic shirt. It came in two color combinations, and I have to say the quality of printing rivaled the factories in Italy. What many of the Italian companies did was make deals with these silk producing companies in China. If the Chinese factory kept supplying the Italian companies with the raw silk fabric unfinished [the Italians preferred to finish and print the fabrics themselves to get the hand exactly the way they wanted them], the Italians would send technicians over to the Chinese factories to teach them how to finish and print their own fabrics. I think the Italians were arrogant enough to think the Chinese could not ever come up to their standards and quality…..they were wrong……the Chinese learned QUICKLY! Years later when the Chinese government raised all of the prices of silk, even the raw silk, the Italians were screwed.  To combat this the Italians opened secondary less expensive divisions. They sent the prints over to China and the Chinese printed them and shipped them back to Italy on the Chinese silk. Since it was a Chinese product it was much less expensive. These were half the price of the Italian “Couture” print lines. Anne Klein 11 bought some of these prints, but most were done directly in China. Anne Klein Couture stayed with the Italian Couture lines. What the Chinese lacked, and still lack is creativity where prints are concerned. At AK11 and at Lai Apparel we always sent the prints for them to copy and produce. They are excellent at that….  Next to that is a zig zag intargia sweater in cotton acrylic……..next a fabulous unlined suede jacket. All of the seams were  CROCHETED together with a rayon yarn that had a sheen to it. These were very popular and were reordered a few seasons. I remember black with red and turquoise with rust being reorder colors……Next was a tunic shirt sweater in the cotton/acrylic, and next it’s companion short sleeve TN, my first twin set for QVC…LOL…..At the very bottom right is another random stripe silk shirt. [this may be a reorder from the previous years stripe shirt in new colors, memory fails]. There was also a long suede skirt [sketch #2], and a pair of pull-on knit pants and long straight knit skirt in colors to go with the group.

I have decided there has been enough commentary about my statement. I will trash all comments whether they agree or disagree, pro or con with what I said. I see now that it was a big mistake and opened the door to all kinds of statements, both true and false. A lot of assumptions have been made about what I believe in, and from comments made I can see it goes far beyond what I said….so I will put an end to it on my website…I will trash any references because we should ALL MOVE ON…..I’s rather not be a policeman of my own website so please refrain…….I hope you understand.

…………………….The theme for the May 2001 group was the beginning of one of my reoccurring themes through out the years…….SAFARI………I introduced a rayon/linen blend for jackets, skirts and a dress. It’s a fabric that everyone liked and I used it in different ways for many years. This group had many interesting fabrics…..starting at the top, next to the chart is a shirt in a Leopard print. I believe it ended up being printed on a silk georgette….next to that is a charmuse burnout crocodile pattern fabric. the sheer and the silk satin was so beautiful…..it draped amazingly. It was BI-COLORED!!! The sheer was olive color and the satin croco was in a grayed orchid a grayed pale peach and a sage. Next sketch is a suede and faux lizard leather trimmed bag with a short handle. It came in 3 colors…..next to that is my Silk CD tunic shirt with the silk chiffon border, and right below that is the very first Capri legging QVC ever did. This was 19 years ago!!! I remember very clearly arguing with my buyer why leggings were going to be important AGAIN! With tunics, big shirts and long sweaters making a strong come back leggings and slim pants were a must for a proper proportion. I finally won out. They were in cotton knit span. They bought the minimal amount, [because they thought they were going to be a bust!], but they sold out in a flash. With all of the tunic styles we were doing I knew they would. Of course the ladies weren’t happy that they couldn’t get them. The leggings were reordered for a few years. Others came out with leggings and mine were discontinued, which I was not happy about. Once again the customers proved that they knew more than the buyers!…….The rest of the middle row shows the JUNGLE PRINT  rayon/linen over sized unlined jacket…..the oblong ombre  silk chiffon scarf ……the Silk CD Safari jacket [the first safari jacket of many to come]….a printed dip dyed wide rib light weight sweater, and a rayon/linen maxi sleeveless shirt dress. The sketch to the extreme bottom left shows the jungle print skirt with different tops, the sleeveless 5 gauge zig zag and rib combo cotton/acrylic sleeveless sweater and a silk shantung stand color shirt………at the extreme bottom right the slim pant with the stitched crease detail…..There were lots of interesting fabrics, colors and silhouettes in this group, and many were to become trend setters a la the leggings……There was absolutely nothing like this on QVC. No one was doing coordinated separates…..Remember, American sportswear was MY BACKYARD!

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……………….March 2001 was my second year at QVC, and my third show…….it was still all so knew to Jac and me……..Cotton stretch for jackets and bottoms, cotton/acrylic blends for sweaters [I’m sure if you still have sweaters in this blend they are like knew. It was a great quality yarn], and silk crepe de chine and silk georgette for solid and printed shirts. In the early days China was the only place where you could get silk. Actually it still is. Since they had a monopoly over the silk worm fiber silk fabrics were very inexpensive at the time. Europe still to this day imports silk fibers from China. They spin it themselves and make their own fabric, but the yarn all comes from China. I remember when printers in the Como area of Italy tried to grow their own silk worms and make their own fibers. It was a disaster….the worms died. Elaine used to say to me design silk, design silk, because the fabrics were incredibly priced. For years we made everything in silk. Then one year China decided to raise all the prices for silk and that was that. Silk disappeared from the Linea line overnight…….Above, is a wonderful drop shoulder, unlined cotton stretch jacket. The inside was all piped in contrast color. The under collar and turn back cuff were also contrast color. The bottom row of sweater were all in the cotton/acrylic. In the middle is the reorder sketch of the “Jockey Shirt” in new colors. The top row has two print silk big shirts. One is a take on an Hermes scarf print with harnesses, straps and horse bits. The stripe shirt next to it was a stripe with no repeat…..meaning the entire shirt was made with different printed stripes. We introduced a suede and leather color block tote to work with the entire collection…….The bold stripe sweaters at the right did incredibly well and were reordered for 3 years straight!

………………………The March 2001 group was quite large…….I probably had a 2 hour show. Yes in those days they gave the new “hot kid” on the block 2 hour shows…..LOL….The polka dots and stripes were silk. The sweaters were all cotton/acrylic which was incredible soft, washed well, and the colors dyed beautifully. All of the bottoms were in the cotton/span except the drawstring pant which came in silk dots ans solids……………It certainly was a fun colorful grouping.