Monthly Archives: June 2021

………………………..September 2012 was all about luxe textures, Byzantine patterns and rich earth and jewel colors……Starting with the jacket at the bottom left….the TWEED…..One of the most enjoyable thing about designing clothes was not necessarily the clothes at all, but finding and creating beautiful fabrics. At the designer level I was like a kid in a candy store….working with the absolute best creators of fabrics. Working for QVC was a much greater challenge. I always tried to offer unusual unique quality fabrics that always looked so much more expensive than they really were. In some cases that came out to be true when the mills raised the prices the next season, which happened often……This Tweed with its’ multi color yarns was a find! It reminded me of all the French tweeds I used to get at Tissage de Charme, a wonderful French mill that is no longer.. The blazer had a three button front, and patch pockets with buttoned flaps. It was lined in a beautiful satin and had all of the “Linea Tailoring” that was already a Linea trademark…The tweeds came in a Walnut and Terragon combination….There were coordinating pieces in both solids and patterns. The light weight poly crepe blouse had a hidden placket front so the buttons couldn’t be seen. It was the CRYSTAL PLEATED tie at the neck that made it “designer”….The matching crepe skirt was a flurry of SUNBURST PLEATS that fanned out when in motion. The blouse came in Ivory, Terragon and Black while the skirt came in Terragon and Black. The two pieces made a wonderful two piece dress under the blazers…………..The Byzantine draped neck top and the A-line boot skirt were both printed on Panne Velvet. The colors were very deep and rich and, as velvet does, changed depth when the light hit the fabric in a certain way. These prints came in a Terragon , Black and Walnut combination, but each print had SEVEN colors in them…….TWEED, CREPE and VELVET made for very rich combinations.

…………………….There is no other fabric like it, and none richer than a beautiful velvet….Of course nothing compares to SILK VELVET, but only the most expensive designer lines can afford it. Poly and Poly blend fabrics have come a long way to achieve the look and hand. With the addition of lycra for stretch, these fabrics are much more durable than silk……..washable too. Above, are examples of the tweeds and velvet mixed together as well as mixing the black with purple velvet print top with a purple boucle jacket and a black and purple hounds tooth check skirt which were soon to come. Of course these all mixed with Whisper Knit sweaters!……..The Linea Jewelry was growing too, and with each collection I was now able to add jewelry to enhance the clothing.

…………………………..Sept. 2012 continued with a fabulous “WASHED” LEATHER and Rib Knit combo blazer. The “washing” of the leather was a special process to make it even softer. It felt like a million dollars! It had a leather front and panel back with rib knit  side panels and sleeves. It had patch pockets with flaps. The pockets were “side entry”. It came in Tarragon and Black……There was a Medallion print cardigan. The print was on the front and back, and it had solid black trims and sleeves. I wanted the look of a vest. It came in three color combinations, Olive Multi, Blue Multi and Purple Multi…..The dress was in a Poly/Rayon blend jersey. It was a slim silhouette with princess seams. It had a pleated draped front, and a center front seam. Just above the waist line was an invert pleat and two inward facing pleats to give the skirt movement, and add a little more bust room drape. It came in Grape, Tarragon and Heather Grey……..The next cardigan had an antique feel to it because it had WASHED RIBBON trim down the front and at the top of the the patch breast pockets. The ribbon, due to the washing didn’t lay smooth. Instead it had a ripply look and unevenly faded which added to the charm of the sweater. I always thought this little cardigan transcend age, and would look just as good on teen ages as older women. It came in Magenta with orchid ribbon, spruce green with aqua ribbon and teal with a gray ribbon

…………………….The Sept. cardigan had a MEDALLION print on the front and back. It had black trims and sleeves. I wanted the effect  to look like a vest…..It came in three color combinations all with black.

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……………………..The picture of Donna and me was taken in the early 80s…………Donna and I had a mutual friend, Leslie Mesh. Leslie and I went to High School together and Donna and Leslie went to summer camp together. I remember Leslie as a very hip, cool and mature girl for her age. She introduced me to pot! When she found out her friend Donna Faske [later Karan] and I were both going to Parsons School of Design she said “you two must meet”. One day after school in early summer of 1966, Leslie and I drove over to Donna’s, which was about 20 minutes from us. Leslie drove her dad’s Cadillac convertible. Donna was sitting on her from steps. She was very thin and tall. Her hair was pulled back tightly into a ponytail, and she was wearing big sunglasses. She had on a skimpy ribbed white tank [we used to call them ginny tees, not so PC today], and cut off very short shorts. They were jeans she cut herself. She also wore gladiator sandals that wrapped all the way up to her knees. I knew at once we were going to be best friends!….and that’s what we became. It was Kismet….We were the only two students from Long Island so we worked together on our school projects all the time…….sometimes at her house and sometimes at mine. My mother would always make us an Italian dinner. We worked all through the night, and went straight to school bleary eyed. We were two peas in a pod, and had all of the same classes together. We became BFF…. After second year Donna got a summer intern job at Anne Klein, and Anne convinced her not to go back to school. She told Donna you’ll learn more on the job than any school could teach you. So she didn’t return. The school was not happy AK was poaching students! I got the Norman Norell Scholarship to complete my third year so I returned to Parsons. I missed my side kick, but we always kept in touch. When I started to work on 7th Ave we would grab lunch together whenever she could get out. Anne didn’t come in until 11am or noon, so it was hard for Donna to get out for lunch, and they worked all hours of the night so dinners weren’t often, but we did have the phone……This was way before e-mails and texts. Eventually I got the call from Chip Rubinstein, Anne’s husband….He wanted to know if I would consider leaving my design job, and come to work with Anne and Donna…..Little did Donna and I know that Anne was dying from breast cancer that came back after four years of remission…….I said yes, and Donna and I were so happy to be together again. When Anne passed it was a great shock. Chip called me and assured me they still wanted me to come to the company, I said yes again. We didn’t know this was Anne and Chip’s plan all the time…….We worked together for nine years, and we were 22 when we started together. During the nine years we worked together as co designers, we won three Coty Awards [the Fashion industries Oscar]. Then we were inducted into the Coty Hall of Fame….all before we were 31…..We grew the company from a 10 million dollar company to a 100 million dollar company when Donna left to create her own label. I continued on at Anne Klein as Chief designer and design director of all the Anne Klein divisions for another 11 years. When I left the company was doing over 500 million a year. The two “kids”, as we were called by Bill Cunningham, made fashion history. Bill was a famous fashion photographer who traveled all over NYC taking candid shots of interesting people…..I believe he took the photo above…….BTW, there were very few times in my life that I grew a full beard.  This was one of them and everyone loved it….. everyone but Jac!