Monthly Archives: April 2021

……………………..Cotton MATTE JERSEY is a very special fabric. In the designer world of fabrics, silk, silk/rayon or 100% rayon matte jersey are used for day and evening dresses. The quality of the fine yarns used on these slow, special knitting machines makes the fabrics very costly. The fabric has to be constantly checked to make sure there are no flaws. When I found a “COTTON JERSEY” made on matte jersey machines I was thrilled. This was something very new…..Only the very finest cotton yarns can be used on these machines to fit into the needles to make COTTON MATTE JERSEY…..perfect for hot weather…..The dresses above were made in this cotton matte jersey from Italy.  The strapless dress looks like a simple criss cross wrap top…….but it was built on a full bustier as any good designer strapless dress should be. There should always be some kind of underpinning for security and to give a good bust shape. Some bustiers are full length to the waist and some are just to the upper rib cage depending on the design of the dress. This bustier came just above the waist. The beauty of a good bustier is that it does its’ job without you feeling constricted or uncomfortable in any way.  The bustier was made out of light weigh mesh and boning to keep it light weight and comfy! It should look effortless and “unconstructed”, but the inner bustier gives a women the security she needs in a strapless…..Ralph Francisco was one of my pattern assistants. He had amazing hands, and could drape the most marvelous things. Jac always said Ralph made the best bustier she had ever worn and that’s saying a lot. When AK closed the couture division he went on to work for Vera Wang in her bridal division……The halter dress with the pleated soft tulip skirt was cinched in with a wide calf belt………”THE CATCH OF THE DAY” necklace was the piece de resistance!

………………………….The five gauge cardigan, and chunky  hand knit pull over sweaters, both in a blend of cotton and silk, had a NAUTICAL FLARE. I have always loved the look of CABLES……The cardigan had gold lurex and navy cables HAND LINKED into the sweater. This was a very labor intensive process, and a detail you rarely see today….It also had gold lurex trims and real gold plated buttons that my jewelry company made……..They often made buttons for me to go with the collection…….The pull over V-neck in the cotton/silk yarn was a truly magnificent hand knit sweater with a very intricate cable and rope pattern. The double cable in gold lurex that was inserted into the V-neck was just beautiful……These are hand done details that you will never see in other sweaters…..pure Designer……….The navy and gold lurex continued the nautical theme.

…………………GOLD LUREX hand crochet styles……….The TANK and the DRESS…….spectacular on their own but wonderful layering pieces too. So easy to pack, so comfortable to wear and such STATEMENT PIECES! These fish net pieces were made out of the same super soft lurex yarn as the cardigan. I repeated the gold fishnet top for Linea, not quite as bare, and it did well to my surprise. I was surprised they bought it in the first place!

…………………….After a few days on the beach, and after you get that beautiful “Sun Kissed Skin” tan…….it’s time to pull out all of the stops! Reservations are made at the best candle lite restaurant on the island, and you are ready for your entrance!….Above, the HAND KNIT gold lurex multi stitch cardigan…….under that the gold lurex hand crocheted dress…..Even the jewelry was made out of clear resin with gold dust floating inside…..In all of my 50 plus years in this business I have never found a lurex as soft next to the skin as this one made in Italy…To be able to wear a crunchy lurex sweater like this against bare skin and it not feel scratchy at all was a true find……..It was amazing………The crocheted dress was made out of the same yarn. It was lined in nude stretch knit……….The outfit gave GOLDEN GIRL a new meaning!

……………………………The Navy Sweater knits with GOLD BALL DETAILS were just as successful on my Anne Klein line as they were when I repeated the idea for Linea……It’s all in the DETAIL…..you can take very simple, classic pieces and make them Fashion Statements by adding the right touch…a new fresh detail……….Of course each of these pieces were impeccably “Made In Italy”….All of the gold beads were hand sewn onto the sweaters as they were for both the AK sweaters as they were for the Linea sweaters…..The belt and jewelry of course were all Anne Klein…………Even though these were available thirty years ago….they could all be sold today…….It seems to me that the designers today are trying so hard to be different and on the edge that they are loosing sight of how women really want to dress………………I think this type of clothing, this simple sophistication, is what the market is drastically missing today.