……………..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.
I’m exhausted just reading about the process! The girls look too cute. Did you go on vacation and sleep for a week after a show?
Karen…..after the show the work didn’t stop. I had to work with the sales people setting up the clothing racks so each group of clothes on the rack told a story. We also had to set up “sketch” pages by fabrication of each style, their style number, color availability and price. We would give these to the buyers to make it easier for them to make their selections. I had to work with the major department stores on ads and such and then I went away to recoup before it started all over again.