Yearly Archives: 2021

……………..From romantic March to North African April. I always tried to make each month’s new offerings totally different….. April 07 was all about ETHNIC and ARTISAN style. This was fun to create, but very very challenging to make! Almost every piece was complicated! Starting with the LINEN/RAYON jacket and pant on the top row. I called this the “DJELLABA” jacket. Djellabas are long loose fitting unisex garments mostly worn in North Africa……..They could be very simple or very elaborate, and some had hoods. This is my take on a djellaba made into a jacket. ALL of the black bands have  seams under them and then the bands were sewn on top to cover the seams….There were many pieces, front and back, to this garment and a LOT OF SEWING to make this garment. First all of the seams needed to be sewn together…then linen banding had to be made and applied to the jacket PRECISELY!!! You can see from the sketch all of the work that had to be done! Elaine was wringing her hands!!! She was constantly telling me we weren’t making “designer” clothes…but those were the only clothes I knew how to design! I pushed her to the limit, but she never broke. I knew she loved a challenge from the simple clothes she was making for others.The entire jacket was lined in a DTM very light weight cotton lawn to keep it as light as possible….The buttons were real Abalone shell DTM and used on the wrong side. The colors were NATURAL with BLACK, MOCHA with BLACK and SPICE with BLACK….all inspired by the colors of Morocco… LINEN, COTTON LAWN, and REAL SHELL BUTTONS plus all of the LABOR added up to one heck of a DESIGNER JACKET. I doubt any of the women who bought this really knew what they were getting, and all of the work that went into it…..I’m sure Elaine was happy when they were finally made and shipped. I’m also sure she was very proud of the final result. Maybe now you can understand a little better why I could not go on designing without my partner….A designer could be a “great designer”, but without the support of people like Elaine they are nothing……The pant was in the same linen blend and had an easy wider leg. Since it was in the linen and only had natural stretch we kept the trouser leg easy. It had a zip front,  elastic at the sides of the waist band and pockets……The next LINEN /RAYON skirt was Elaine’s second big challenge!. It was inspired by the photo of Jac’s shoe below. It was an 8 panel Linen/Rayon A-line skirt. It had a side zipper and elastic on the sides of the waist band. Actually, this was more of a challenge for me than Elaine!…..I had to design the emb.. It was a combination of appliqued pieces, thread work and hand sewn sequins and beads. It was avail in WHEAT /BLACK/MULTI and SPICE/BLACK/MULTI….The large black sections were black cotton that were cut into these specific shapes and sewn onto each panel [the panels were made separately and then sewn together]. The linen/rayon with the cotton had a very ethnic authentic look. The nomads would often sew odd pieces of different cloth together in different patterns. It was frugal as well as beautifully artistic. Of course the more the creative the individual woman was the more beautiful the final result. Nomads made clothes as well as cushions and ottomans like this.. On top of the black cotton thread work and beading was added. I recently found this skirt in my warehouse, and it is even more beautiful than I remembered. There are separate photos of it to follow.. When I handed the art work into Rowena…she looked at it and looked at me, and had a look on her face that said “I’ll show it to Elaine and then run!”…She said “OK I’ll show it to Elaine”. Elaine called me crazy but sent it over to China anyway. They did a great job of reproducing my emb!!!..and we could afford it… “if you don’t ask, you don’t get!!!”……The “glory days”….. The  tank in silk/nylon brought Elaine a sigh of relief!! One easy garment to make. It was avail in the WHEAT, POMEGRANATE and BLACK…..Next was the MIDI SKIRT in SILK CREPE de CHINE. It was approx. 27 inches long, a pull-on elastic waist with inseam pockets…. Now you would guess the stripes were printed…..you would be wrong. Each stripe was a separate piece sewn together! I LOVED these skirts they were so billowy and ethnic looking. All you needed was a simple tank and some fabulous jewelry! They were unlined and moved beautifully…..skirts to dance in……The little jacket next to the skirt was another relatively easy garment for Elaine to produce….however these simple little thing could give the biggest headaches! They had to be made perfectly because every little flaw screamed out! The jacket was in a beautiful silky blend of LINEN and RAYON. I used this fabric often. The jacket was short, unlined…had a flat shirt collar [no stand], side slits and 3/4 sleeves. It had one loop and button just under the collar. It came in three colors, BLACK, CURRY and COFFEE. These colors were all in the striped skirts, and the tanks coordinated with the two pieces…..It was a matter of mixing colors to create interesting looks……The next sweater was my nightmare not Elaine’s! It was a Moroccan inspired sweater in cotton/acrylic. It took me for ever to work out the design of the CHAIN STITCH and BEAD EMB. It was on the front…it was on the back and it was on the sleeves! It came in WHEAT, SPICE and MOCHA. It had a slight scoop neckline with a split, 3/4 sleeves and side slits. I very recently saw this sweater in spice on ebay and it looked like it was in beautiful condition. They had some beautiful pictures of the emb.. The only reason I can think of for selling it is they are just plain tired of wearing it after all these years, but what’s old for one person is BRAND NEW for someone else….and it was dirt cheap! It’s the type of sweater you would find in the Sundance catalog, or the Peruvian Catalog or even Soft Surroundings and maybe Johnny Was…….Catalogs that offer unusual pieces.

…………………….I loved this skirt for so many reasons…Of course the over all look of the skirt was pure fun. The ethnic, hand made. and artisan look of the skirt is what I truly loved. Yes, it was a challenge to design…..deciding the pattern the colors and where the metallic threads, sequins and beads should go was like a huge puzzle….but that’s the fun of designing….anyway for me. I know many designers would hand this project off to others to figure out. They would give them some sort of abstract inspiration and send them off. The minutiae of it was overwhelming for many. What I also love about artisan skirts or any apparel is there is no time or place……..they are never dated or out of fashion….because they are artisan……and that never goes out of style. This skirt looks as fresh and as much fun as when I first did it many years ago.

………………………..The Moroccan sweater has unbelievable hand emb in thread work and sewn on sequins. I recently saw this sweater on ebay for $29! I have seen sweaters in this vein in many catalogs including Soft Surroundings, Peruvian Collection and Sundance…..For me it’s a collector’s item because sweaters with this amount of emb…front, back and sleeves are not often avail at a reasonable price……and ethnic inspired clothes are never out of date. Some may be tired of wearing something like this after so many years, but to someone else it’s NEW and FRESH!

……………………..The second part of April 07 was totally different from the first, and they were shown on two different shows in April. There were many reorders in addition to these four new styles. There was a cotton tunic shirt that was printed with an eyelet pattern inspired from a window valence in my bedroom. In this case it’s printed and the holes are laser cut. Then there was a tile print on georgette for a peasant type blouse…..If you look closely at the sketch you will notice that the writing are corrections I wanted made. They sometimes sent the sample to me, and I would put it on my form. I would then send a sketch back with the corrections I wanted made…….A cardigan with milk beads, sequins and bugle beads, and a SILK/NYLON ENR sweater set with rhinestone buttons.

……………………….March 07 was a romantic group of clothes with very special fabrics developed for the individual styles….Some had a very fragile, feminine look…..Starting at the top left, was a beautiful single button blazer made in a NATURAL STRETCH LINEN with METALLIC THREADS woven into it. It came in NATURAL with GOLD, a very pale AQUAMARINE with GOLD, and IVORY with SILVER. The natural and aqua had a gold metal “soutache” button and the ivory had a silver button [you can see it in the photo at the lower left under the sweater]. This was a shorter jacket, It has princess seams and body darts for a sculptured shape. It was fully lined. To coordinate with the blazer there were two very special pieces in a very special burn out silk I had developed for the group. It had SATIN small flowers, leaves and stems on a sheer chiffon background……It was also DOUBLE DYED!!! meaning the fabric was in to colors. The Aquamarine chiffon had Champagne or Natural Beige satin flowers….the White chiffon had Silver Grey satin flowers and the Natural chiffon had a tonal but darker Natural satin flowers, leaves and stems. There was a V-neck tank, and a BIAS pull on skirt that was 28 inches long. The skirt had a special elastic at the waist. It wasn’t covered. It was an exposed “fancy” elastic with a scalloped edge like something that would be used for lingerie. Of course both pieces were lined, but they were still light as a feather and moved with every breeze…..Below is a sketch of a LINEN and LUREX BIG SHIRT…..The fabric was super light weight. It was the same body as the very successful Fuji silk work shirt, and had tiny faux horn buttons that were DTM the NATURAL, PALE LILAC and CELEDON……To the left of the shirt is a suede jacket that had a laser cut eyelet design. This design bordered the bottom of the jacket and 3/4 sleeves. It had one hook and eye closure. The colors again were NATURAL, CELEDON and PALE LILAC…….The sweater at the far left was a 5 gauge fancy open work pattern with a center  diamond motif, and open work zig zags on either side. It had flat rib starts….The yarn was a beautiful blend of LINEN/VISCOSE and LUREX. What you can’t see is how dimensional the stitches were. Between each zig zag there were raised zig zag ribs…and the rib starts were very pronounced. The colors were Ivory/Silver, Lilac/Gold and Natural/Gold. This was a very different group from anything I had ever done before for QVC. I thought it would be perfect for that time of year when the spring bulbs start breaking through and perfect for Spring weddings.