……………….These photos, all from Neiman Marcus catalogues from years ago, were given to me by a friend…….They bring back so many memories that my head is full of stories……Of course the first thing I remember is the many many trips I made to Praiano, Italy on the Amalfi coast…..I always stayed in Andrea Pfister and Jean Pierre Dupre’s villa at the very edge of a cliff….over looking the Mediterranean Sea……with Positano in the near distance!…..I would always get to the villa a few days earlier than the Schwartz and Benjamin team [the AK licensee]. Andrea, Jean Pierre and I would relax by the pool, taking the sun, drinking ice cold white wine and eating incredible food…..laughing all the time……Sometimes Jac would join me……When the team arrived, consisting of Phyllis Footer, who helped us detail the shoes, taking all of the notes, and developed all of the shoes in the factories, and Arthur Swartz, who owned the company, also came….play time was OVER!…..Andrea, Phyllis and I sat in Andrea’s huge white studio on the second floor of the villa, and got to work. Andrea always prepared shoes for us to select from, but most of the time we could only use details as the shoes were too complicated as they were…..So I started sketching and Andrea would sketch my ideas on “lasts”, which are wooden or plastic shoe forms covered in masking tape so the tape could easily be removed and used as a pattern.. Once we were satisfied that we had all of the styles we needed which usually consisted of 50 to 75 individuals styles….we started to “detail” them…..deciding on materials and color combinations for each shoe…..It was a ton of work….and there was no air conditioning in Andrea’s studio!….so we sat there in our bathing suits!!….We would break for lunch for about 2 hours, take a dip in the pool to refresh ourselves and wake up from all of the white wine we consumed…..dry off, and head back up to the studio to continue working until dinner was ready……which usually Jean Pierre prepared. He was a brilliant chef, and he always used special herbs, so his food tasted like nothing I had ever had before. It was incredible. In the summer we always ate on the large terrace overlooking Capri and Positano…..breathtaking!!!…The work trip usually lasted a week to a week and a half, and then we all left Andrea to his separate peace in PARADISE!…..If you would like to see his villa where we stayed….you can GOOGLE………..WWW.VILLA LILLY PRAIANO ITALY ……[the new name given to it] It used to be named after the ancient tower on the property. Why it was changed I don’t know…….Since Andrea’s and Jean Pierre’s death it has been sold to a group who rents luxury villas….and absolute luxury it is….It is almost exactly as it was with a few additions. They divided Andrea’s studio in half to make another bedroom, and a play room with a pool table in it, but the pool and terraces are exactly as they were…..even the lounge chairs by the pool, and the outside dining table and chairs are the same….Once in a while I will look at the videos showing the villa just to reminisce….I like to remember all the great times I had there with Jac, Andrea, Jan Pierre and Phyllis over the 18 years I spent there…twice a year!….Today it is considered one of the finest villas to rent on the entire Amalfi coast, and I can tell you it is truly PARADISE!…..The photos above show a model, I think her name was Emma, wearing one of my convertible sweaters….The cowl neck and the drop shoulder sleeves had exposed ZIPPERS that zipped these sections off leaving a cap sleeve, open neck tunic. With it she is wearing my matching leggings and my SUEDE OVER THE KNEE BOOTS!…….Below that are two more shoes with ZIPPER DEATAILS…..An Ankle Bootie with a side zip in suede, and next to that a Mid heel pump with zipper details across the toe and in the center of the heel…..At the top right is a signature pump of the season with a patent leather platform and heel…..Below the pump is a RESORT triple banded SLIDE. It had a square toe and a gold square low heel……Even though these were all done 30 plus years ago….they could all be worn today!
