Monthly Archives: January 2021

……………………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.

……………….November 04 introduced my second TSV!!!!It was a Holiday cardigan sweater with sequin and bugle bead emb. The bugle beads were sewn under the sequins which made the sequins stand up. We called it the “dancing sequins”. I had a huge disagreement with the buyer and TPTB over the colors they wanted this sweater to be in. They wanted it to be in 3 or 4 pastel colors [can’t remember how many]. I thought the colors chosen weren’t right for Nov. I wanted more Holiday colors like Red, Royal, Ivory and Black. The colors they originally chose were even paler and more washed out than the colors we finally agreed upon. It’s not that I didn’t like the lilac, aqua, and pale lime…..I just though Nov. was the wrong timing. They looked more resort and spring than Holiday, and how many QVC customers took off on a vacation in Nov. and Dec. and wanted pastel dressy sweaters???? As a result the sweater and the two upsells…..the tank and skirt only sold fair….but….that spring when we sold them again they BLEW OUT!!! so fast that all the pieces were reordered for the fall, and I finally got to do the colors that I wanted, and they blew out too!…..The next row of sweater were emb. sweaters…..The new version of the blazer sweater was again in the Honeycomb stitch, but this time for the Holidays we added LUREX…..There was a coordinating short sleeve TN lurex sweater in the black/gold and champagne/gold…..another year completed!!

…………………………September 04 allowed me to experiment more with fabrics and embroideries.. With each new collection I feel my design esthetic took hold and expanded…….This was an extensive group with many new items and many reorders [not shown above]. There was a Boiled wool woven blanket stripe topper that came in two beautiful color combinations…The second coloration had a soft Taupe ground with soft mid range colors, like dried flowers……below that sketch is the intargia diamond panel sweater that coordinated with the stripe jackets………at the top, next to the stripe jacket, is the suede zip front vest with the rib knit collar and back…..it had body seams for a good shape and inset band pockets…..also in that sketch is the georgette midi plaid skirt…….the actual swatches of the fabrics are below, but my pictures couldn’t capture how vivid the color were. This silk georgette gored skirt sold out in a flash. When we tried to reorder it the print factory refused to reprint it because it was too difficult……the original fabric was very detailed and fine….it came from Europe and was extremely expensive…..The next sketch is of a new solid boiled wool jacket with knit rib collar and sleeves. Looking back I’m amazed with the amount of jackets I was allowed to do in one month!…..The next two sketches coordinated…….The first is an angora blend sweater with tiny tonal sequins for an all over emb. It was an open jewel neck sweater with a REMOVABLE COWL PIECE……In the following sketch is the reorder Wheat emb. boiled wool jacket which had been a TSV the previous year. Now it was in two new colors, plus we brought the old colors back with the matching TN sweaters. Here you see the emb. angora sweater without the cowl under the jacket……..below that is the Honeycomb stitch reorder sweater blazer in the new RED………Below the knit blazer a brand new suede jacket with the Whip Stitch leather detail……..all the way over to the bottom left is an amazing jacket! It was again Boiled wool and had an amazing amount of faceted flat back jewel beads all hand emb……It also had tread work for the vines and leaves. The emb. was dense and BEAUTIFUL It was avail in the black only with the multi color stones that formed flowers and leaves. I wish I still had this sample!!!! It really was a treasure, and a collectors item for sure. I have never seen it being resold anywhere……If you see one grab it!!!!……..This is another example of something that could never be repeated again today for anything less than $500 or more………..As the years went buy the boiled wool also became too expensive to continue with. The factory tried to make a new “lighter weight” version, but I hated it…..it was just cheesy, and the ivory and light colors were slightly see through which they never were in the original fabric…..I knew the ladies would not like this cheap looking substitute that was the same price as the heavier original!…Wool prices were on their way up. China was not a big wool producer and had to import the yarn. Unfortunately the countries, like Australia and Mongolia, where China was getting their wool from did not make fabrics, but for now the boiled wool was a great price so we kept using it……..until we couldn’t……Looking at these pictures there isn’t a thing I wouldn’t repeat today…..and IMHO is so much better than anything the Q is offering today!