Monthly Archives: October 2021

……………..Happy Halloween everyone!………….Jac and Susan doing looks for another fall show…………..Susan was a model I always brought in to do looks for the collection with Jac……It was good to have a blond and a brunette…..Usually after working from 5:00pm to 1am or 2am putting looks together we all started to get giddy. It had been a long night of trying on clothes and taking polaroid pictures, after a long day of work already. The girls were constantly putting on “looks” that I put together, and changing them until I decided this was the final way I wanted an outfit shown. The girls were constantly touching up their make up as it started to disappear after many hours. We usually started at 5:00pm while the rest of the company was winding down. The sample rooms were closing for the night at about 7pm. Of course closer to the show they would stay until the wee hours of the morning….Some clothes were finished the morning of the show!!!Dinner would be brought for Jac, Susan myself, and my staff as we all took a break at about 8:00pm….Then I would organize on a rack more outfits I wanted Jac and Susan to put on…At a certain point everyone got tired before we got our second wind. We were definitely laughing from exhaustion!…This went on in every designers work room before their shows……In the photos above Jac and Susan were in the “accessories” for an evening segment of the show…..cluster stone earrings, color sheer tights with matching satin pumps and long stretch satin gloves. They had on their runway makeup and hair dos and were ready to create runway looks….There were six different colors in this evening group, Red, Lime, Fuchsia, Royal Blue, Emerald Green and Turquoise, which meant Jac and Susan had to change everything as we changed into another color!!…In the picture at the lower right you can get a glimpse of the Lime Silk Satin quilted coat Susan was to wear. Jac had a matching one in red. There were also matching satin quilted “poof” skirts and matching velvet  stretch low neck tank bodysuits…..We had lots of fun as the show music blared! As looks were decided photos were taken and the assistants would take the outfits from Jac and Susan and put them in plastic long garment bags. All of the accessories were put into the bags, and lists were made of exactly what was in each bag. These lists were attached to the outside of the bags so the dressers knew what was in them for the models to wear. We usually went home at 2:00-2:30, and the next day it would start all over until the show finally came……We pulled some all nighters before the show too…..My day usually started at 10-10:30am to work with my sample rooms and everything else Connie had on my agenda before Jac arrived at 1:00pm for fittings…..Susan would arrive latter on to try on the new looks with Jac……..We had a lot of fun, but it was exhausting work! Many nights Jac and I would get back to our apartment, take showers, and I would rub her aching feet! I miss a lot about those days and nights…..but not the exhausting work.

……………………ESTELLE…………..Estelle Lefebure…….a true beauty!!!! She was simply exquisite. These photos were part of my Fall 1993 Anne Klein National Ads campaign. Three of the ads were licensee products…….Hand Bags and Small Leather Goods, Scarves, and Furs….Yes in 1993 I designed furs. The coat was Golden Russian Sable……..In the center photo Estelle is wearing a Camel Hair Coat, a Camel Hair TN and a Black Suede Shirt. All of the clothes and jewelry Estelle is wearing were part of the collection. ETRO printed the scarf for me on silk. The Peanut Brittle Embossed Crocodile pieces were in leather. Estelle was one of the most beautiful models I ever worked with. She was married to a very famous French rock singer at the time and she lived in Paris. His name was David Hallyday, and his parents were Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Hallyday. They were both very famous French singers. Johnny was considered the Elvis Presley of France, and sold more record and won  more awards than any other French artist of his time. They were both beautiful couples, but unfortunately neither of their marriages lasted…..Estelle was a hugely successful model who did many magazine covers around the world, but she rarely came to the US and only did photography in the US. She had an incredible face! At 55 years of age I believe she is still modeling….. For more on Estelle, David, Sylvie and Johnny it is worth googling.

…………….This is the very first Vogue cover I received “ON MY OWN”. By this time Donna had left the company and started her own venture. I chose to remain at Anne Klein where I designed for another 10 years. Needless to say I was more than excited when I was told I was getting a cover, but when I saw it I was blown away. It was a first for me, and I think it may have been a first for Naomi Campbell, but I’m not 100% sure about that. If not her first it was her second…….It was a red jacket and pant completely covered in rows of gold hand sewn bugle beads. I had nothing to do with the necklace and earrings, which I wasn’t very fond of….but hey as the saying goes, “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”, whatever that means? I was thrilled not only for me, but for the company. It was a great validation.

………………Carrie Donovan was a powerhouse fashion editor who had a lot of POWER in the industry. She was responsible for the Sunday Times fashion sections. EVERY designer wanted to be a part of this special magazine. To get the stamp of approval from Ms. Donovan was very validating no matter how big of a designer you were….No one wanted to be left out……Every Spring and every Fall Carrie did a special separate magazine for the Times. It was called the “Fashion of the Times Forecast” of the best of the BEST. She did one issue for New York, one for Italy and one for France. EVERYONE wanted a photo in the magazine….even a sketch or a black and white small photo would have been great to get. When the photo of my ZEBRA and WINDOWPANE outfit opened the New York section with a whole color page I was astonished and thrilled. I got a lot of feedback. Many congratulations, but there were always some who were jealous. That’s just the way it was, and I’m sure still is. The outfit was all mine, and this was a very special collection for me. Donna and I were still together working at Anne Klein, but she was very busy working on the first collection of Anne Klein 11, so I did 95% of this fall collection. I developed ALL of the fabrics and ALL of the sweaters and knitwear, plus I developed ALL of the accessories, so basically it was my collection with minimal input from Donna who was toiling away on another floor getting the AK11 collection done. In order to get both jobs done we had to separate and it was the first time working together that this separation took place…….The outfit Carrie chose to photograph was bold and fabulous. It happened to be the season that many designers did bold color. The coat was a double faced cashmere and wool blend in a GIANT WINDOWPANE design. The drop sleeve coat was totally bound in a double sided woven tape, so the coat was completely reversible…A firm that I had worked with for years, FILA, made the fabric for me. It had to be made on special looms due to the fact that it was double faced and due to the large pattern. Not many fabric manufactures had the capability of making such a fabric. Fila also made all of my wool crepe, some gaberdines, and many of my solid coatings. Magda Ferrare was the head of Fila, just under Mr. Fila himself.  I worked with Magda developing all of the Fila fabrics. We became very close, and I still, all these years later, hear from her once in a while. She even followed my QVC Linea line and she ordered many pieces for herself. She couldn’t get over the quality and workmanship for the price. Mr Fila was a marvelous man. He took us out to dinner at fabulous restaurants many times, both in Italy and in Paris when we were all there for the Premiere Vision fabric show…..He was a very sophisticated intelligent man….always with a smile on his face…..The long sleeve jewel neck ZEBRA sweater was made in Italy. I went to Italy and worked with my agent Giovanna Pestelli Ciampini. We traveled all over Italy together putting the samples into work with different factories. She was like the sister I never had, and we are still very close after over 50 years!!!!! This was an Intargia sweater [a method of knitting]. The black was ANGORA, and the golden orange [the color of a tiger] was Marino wool all on a 7 gauge machine…………..The zebra skirt was made in my work rooms by a man with golden hands, my Phillip! He was a genius when it came to leather and suede. He was a survivor of the concentration camps, and was freed when he was a very young boy. He once showed me the tattoo of numbers on his arm which they put on him in the camp. He was one of the kindest sweetest men I have ever met. Every Christmas he would make me a leather jacket or coat. I still have some of them. I loved him very very much…….The skirt was all suede. The gold color was the main suede pencil skirt and the black suede was hand cut and appliqued on top…….It was fabulous………When a designer does a Zebra pattern they must commit to it being VERY SPECIAL, since there are many many bad ones that have been done over the years. This skirt and sweater were very special!!!! There were also kimono cardigans in the same Zebra angora and wool, blouses in zebra stripes that were printed on a floral silk jacquard fabric done for me by ETRO. I had FILA also make a double face coating in the same wool and cashmere blend in a large zebra pattern. Andrea Pfister, the shoe designer who worked with me on developing the Anne Klein Couture shoe collection, made Zebra flats, pumps and boots all with applique NOT PRINTED on the leather. The shaft of the boot was in the applique zebra pattern. The scarf was a hand woven Hounds Tooth check done in a few different color combinations. The Hounds Tooth became a separate theme in the collection, but I combined many of the Hounds Tooth pieces with the Zebra pieces and the  accessories especially the  blouses and shoes…..All of the Zebra pieces were also done in Ivory and Black like a real zebra. There were additional colors offered in the zebra blouses. I was definitely COMMITTED to the Zebra design, and each piece was a gem…….I have recently seen Zebra patterns show up on designers runways, and some like Michael Kors have used them in their national ads, but IMHO none compare with the Zebra pattern or apparel I did for Anne Klein Couture some 37 years ago……I revised the coat and blouse pattern for Linea using the same designs I had done for Anne Klein Couture. I’m sure many of you still own them………This was an exciting and wonderful collection……WWD called it “A Walk on the Wild Side”. The stores loved it, and Bloomingdales ran a full page Sunday ad in the NY Times on the entire outfit above in the Black and Ivory combination. I received many editorials on the collection from many fashion magazines…….It was a great season, and one I will always remember.