……………….It was late November of 1973….Everyone was back from the triumphant Versailles show, and I had read about it in all the papers. Donna, who was one of my dearest friends, and who I met the summer after we graduated high school, and before we were to start going to Parsons School of Design together, called me and asked if I wanted to go to lunch! This was a rare occurrence as Donna was usually locked away in the inner sanctum of Anne Klein. We met at a local designer hangout for lunch [can’t remember the name…..it’s long gone].. I hadn’t seen Donna in a while, and was shocked to see how huge she was. She was well on her way to gaining 90 lbs due to her pregnancy!!!! We sat and talked and she told me stories about what went on at Versailles, and how horrible the male designers were towards Anne, the horrendous conditions, and how freezing cold it was. She also told me how rude and horrible the Americans were treated by the French…..as if they didn’t exist, as if they were a joke. The only designer she said who was treated well was Oscar, because he worked for two famous French designers before coming to America, and spoke French fluently. At the end of the lunch Donna came to the point about why she wanted to meet with me……It seemed Anne had decided, after all her years in the business, [she was only 51, and her company was only 5 or 6 years old, but had been designing for years already], that she wanted to take a back seat and enjoy life with her husband. She didn’t have children. She said she wanted to travel, and the company was a 24/7 situation. Donna was so pregnant and her hormones were soring, and didn’t know how she was going to feel about working after the baby came. The one thing Anne and her partners knew was that Donna couldn’t run the designing by herself and needed a partner. They approached her and asked her who she would want to work with. Donna was relieved that with Anne taking a back seat all of the responsibility wouldn’t be on her. She immediately said, “Louis”….I was the one she wanted to work with. Anne and her husband Chip were very aware of who I was, and that I had been designing the Giorgini line on my own for 3 years. They agreed, and Donna met with me to see if I was interested in becoming her partner and co-designer. To work for Anne and the House of Anne Klein was a dream. Anne who opened the company in 1968, literally at that time had no competition. Calvin and Ralph were just starting and Ralph was only doing men’s wear at the time. I said yes…..but they still wanted to interview me. I really didn’t know Chip and briefly met Anne. A meeting was set up for the end of Nov. at their penthouse apt. on East 57th Street. This whole meeting was very hush hush, and no one was to know about it! When I went to the top floor penthouse apt with wrap around terraces, I was met at the door by Anne herself. She asked me in and told me to wait, as Chip would be conducting the interview……I thought this is strange….I would have thought that Anne would have had a million questions to ask me, but she left, and Chip came out and escorted me into a large sunken living room with French doors on three sides and a huge fireplace on the fourth wall. It was a beautiful sunlight room with nubby ivory wool couches. Chip and I talked for a little over an hour, and we said our goodbyes. He said I would be hearing from him. Days went by and I heard nothing…..not even from Donna. I started to think this wasn’t going to happen, and resigned myself to stay where I was, and where I was truly happy. I worked with great people who gave this young kid a big chance……..Just as I thought nothing was going to happen I got “the call”……Chip said the job was mine if I still wanted it….He said Donna was so happy to finally be able to work with me. This was something we always dreamed about when we were in Parsons together…..and now it was happening. There was one hitch…..I had a contract that didn’t end until June first. Chip said that was no problem, but if I could get out of it earlier that would be great. He made me promise that I was to tell no one where I was going……..I told my boss I would be leaving when my contract was up….He wasn’t happy especially when I told him I was unable to tell him where I was going. He guessed, but I did not confirm…He would not release me…..I went about my business speaking to Donna….mostly at night…….Then the disastrous news!!!! On March 14th, 1974 Anne Klein died!! I didn’t even know she was sick…..Anne surmised just before she left for the Versailles show that maybe her breast cancer had come back. It had been 4 years since she had it last, and she thought she beat it…..She didn’t want anything to spoil this trip to Versailles so she made the decision to wait, and see her doctor when she returned in a week. She learned it came back, and it came back with a vengeance…..There was nothing they could do, and they gave her a very bad prognosis. She had to protect her namesake company and devised a plan with her husband and two partners to get Donna the partner she would need. After all she was pregnant and they had no idea how she would feel once she knew the facts about Anne. They kept the true story from Donna, and told Donna the story about Anne wanting to take it easier, and who would she want to work with…….When I heard this horrific news I didn’t know what to think. I was so looking forward to working with Anne and Donna…..Did they still want me???? Three days after Anne’s death I got a call from Chip. He assured me nothing had changed in their wanting me to join the company, but under these new circumstances did I still want to come?…..I did…….Donna gave birth a short time after Anne’s passing….Now I understood why months earlier it was Chip who interviewed me and not Anne. How uncomfortable, awkward and sad it would have been for her to be interviewing someone that may be replacing her!…Chip invited me to the apartment one afternoon to sit shiva. It is a time when mourners gather for emotional healing. I went, but there were only a few people I knew. It was early in the day, and most people were coming in the evening………Chip asked me if I would accompany him to Anne’s office. it was located at the far side of the apt and it too had French doors leading onto the terrace. There was a large glass desk, and on the walls rows of glass shelves, There was a chair behind the desk and one in front of it. There was also a small couch covered in the same ivory nubby wool. I noticed that the shelves were filled with wonderful things Anne had collected….Things that I’m sure inspired her. Chip asked me to sit and he sat behind the desk. He told me how pleased he was with my choice to come to the company, and he promised me he would do all in his power to make me comfortable, and if ever I had a problem I was to go to him directly….Over the years I found him to be a man of his word. I was very sorry when he was forced out by the new Japanese ownership…..Donna and I loved Chip and we missed his sage advise….He was a father figure…….As we were sitting there at the glass desk he got up and went over to the shelves, and pulled down this copper lion and brought it to the desk. He told me it was Anne’s, and that he and Anne had a conversation about the fact that she and I were both Leos, which was the signature and brand of her company. I totally understood why Anne would love this crude artisan piece of sculpture….She was pleased that I was a Leo like her, and that a Leo would still be designing her company…..I found that very poignant….that a woman who knew what her faith was to be was thinking about me, a Leo, being in her company continuing her legacy. Her label had a lion and there were lions all around the office. Chip handed this copper lion to me and said, “I think Anne would have wanted you to have this.” I was speechless……..That was FIFTY YEARS ago, and I still get choked up whenever I see it and think of that day. It stands in a prominent place in my family room, and not a time goes by that I don’t look at it and remember.
