Designer

……………………….The April 10 “Designing Men” show had four pieces…..The jacket was the STAR…..It was in a beautiful cotton stretch fabric. ALL of the RED PIPING in the sketch were SEAMS so it was a very intricate ARCHITECTURAL jacket. It had a kissing zip front and 3/4 sleeves. It came in Ivory with Red and Grey with Violet. There was also a coordinating cotton skirt to complete the suit……..The double breasted TRENCH DRESS was also made in a stretch cotton. It had a stand collar with metal hooks and eyes like a trench coat. It had cut in armholes, and slanted band pockets. The back had a “flap” like a trench coat. The dress came with a self fabric tie belt. The dress came in White and Yellow, and it had wonderful faux TORTOISE buttons……….The “Grecian” type draped top was made in rayon jersey. It was a beautiful design, and a difficult one to execute properly…………SCROLL DOWN for the “DESIGNING MEN” collage

……………………….April 10 had a special show called “Special Occasion”. These were clothes you might wear for the Easter Holidays or any Spring/Summer special occasion……The jacket on the top row was made in a Shantung jacquard floral pattern. Due to the shantung fabric it had an iridescence to it. I had many trials of colors made up to show to the buyers….BIG MISTAKE…..Never give them too many choices……Nine times out of ten they will pick your least favorite colors which I should have eliminated in the first place!…LOL…..They chose Seafoam and Orchid…two pretty colors, but not my first picks. I would have gone with something stronger like the Lime and one of the peachy pinks or sky blues. There was a coordinating pant in White, Orchid and Navy……………The 3/4 sleeve jewel neck cardigan had DTM pearls bordering the neckline and the sleeve…..It came in Black, Aqua and Champagne……….The georgette tunic top had  bracelet length sleeves. The neckline had “cartridge pleats”, and in between each pleat a DTM pearl. It also had contrast facings in the split sleeve and the hem which had side slits so the contrast color could be seen…….The colors were Turquoise with Lime and Orchid with a bright Pink.

……………………The JEWELRY SALE ENDS TONIGHT! I would suggest you take advantage of it while you can, and while the jewelry is still avail.

…………………..Every season we added a print or two to each group of clothing to work as a coordinate or as a stand alone piece. We would call in 5 or 6 different print companies to look at the lines. These were companies from England, Italy and the USA that had a team of print designers in each country who created prints to sell. Many times I had an idea for a print and had our own team develop it…..That was the case for “The Rope Of Pearls” print. I took some strands of pearls and laid them on a printer. I tried many different layouts until I chose one that I liked the best. The ivory pearls above is the layout I chose for the print. Then I gave it to the print developer. Elaine had 3 or 4 “print people” who had different jobs developing prints. I always worked with the same person, Katherine. She took my photocopy and developed a layout and repeat. Then she planned out the amount of screens it would take to achieve the look, and the amount of colors that would be needed. When we agreed on the final amount of screens needed she would start to create different color combinations on the computer. That was the fun part. We would sit together and choose colors from a book that was part of the computer program. There were literally hundreds of colors to choose from. Above is just a sampling of the colors we developed. The hard part was picking two or three depending on how many the buyer wanted to purchase.

……………………The March 10 Designer Gallery had some fun pieces……Starting at the bottom left….a new Cotton stretch TRENCH JACKET. The double breasted jacket came in three fun colors….Yellow, Peony Pink and Turquoise. All three jackets had white details…white poker chip buttons, white cotton under the collar, the underside of the sleeve straps, and one side of the self fabric tie belt were all in white cotton . They were fully lined. A great way to start a colorful spring 2010…..The next jacket was an on trend “BASEBALL” jacket in leather and knit. The raglan sleeves were in fully fashioned ribbed knit, and the body, collar and contrast trims were all in leather….The inspiration came from the shoe at the lower left of the sketch. The Red, White and Blue jacket had Navy rib sleeves with White and Red stripe rib borders. The White leather jacket had  Red piping and red plastic exposed teeth zippers down the front and zipper pockets. Navy leather bands bordered the red zip pockets. The bottom had a navy leather band with red piping. What looked like a simple jacket had many different aspects and details to keep straight…It was a fun jacket to wear with  jeans. khaki or Ponte pants…..The second combination in the baseball jacket was Ivory, Orange and Tan…….Above is a georgette blouse. I’m a strong believer in a feminine blouse to broaden and complete a women’s wardrobe……They can be more versatile than what you may think and most of the time need no more care than a sweater or tee. This georgette blouse had contrast bands and ruffle trims. This button front blouse was great with dress pants and a skirt, and looked equally wonderful with jeans…..The color block tunic sweater was made in cotton/acrylic….It came in Mocha and Ivory and Turquoise and Navy……..Easy and comfortable…….a timeless top that is always in style.