………………..On one of our trips to the warehouse where I store my samples Angela found this faux de Chine Aqua dress……..perfect for these summery days. She wore it last week and told me she got tons of compliments! They should only know it’s 10 years old….LOL, but who would guess…..it’s so timeless it can be worn forever.
…………………..Jan. and Feb. were very small, but March made up for it. Normally April and May are the main months to show Spring, but Linea was relegated to March for its’ main Spring show. As it turned out it was an advantage, because I was able to show my main spring styles earlier than the other brands. This gave my ladies a longer season by the time they were delivered….The bar was set…..Starting at the top was a cotton tunic shirt. The cotton span fabric was developed for Linea and became a signature shirting. The classic men’s collar had collar stays….something you never saw in women’s shirts.It came in navy and white. This shirt became a favorite… and was reordered many times.The next top in rayon and poly jersey was called the “Juliette top”. It had an Empire seam. The neckline had an elastic with a notched V at the center of the scoop neckline. The short raglan sleeve also had elastic at the hem. The colors were latte and black. The next jacket had a swing silhouette and large patch pockets. It had a notch collar and three quarter sleeves with wide turn back cuffs. This unlined cotton.span jacket was in a marvelous abstract animal print. It came in latte and black and white with black….The jacket at the bottom left was a Linea hallmark. No detail was left out. This kind of jacket sort of designs itself. By that I mean the piping demanded to be where it is. If just one inserted piping were left off the jacket, in my eyes, it would not have been complete…..to Elaine’s dismay….LOL. I’m sure she would have chosen to remove half of it. It had a piped narrow shawl collar, front and hem with three poker chip buttons to match the piping All of the seams and body darts were piped, the pocket bands were piped. What looked like a piped cuff was actually a seam with inserted piping. Only the back body darts were not piped….That really would have been overkill….The jacket was fully lined. It came in ivory with red piping, navy with ivory piping and perfectly pink with navy piping. The jacket was sharp, fresh and youthful. It looked great with jeans and the matching crop pant with the piping on the pocket and the side seams….This jacket looks as good today as it did 10 years ago….they all do!…..The next top was the introduction of “Pebble Crepe”. It blew out in coffee bean and black, and continued to be a reorder year after year. At the end we must have done at least 9 to 10 colors…..The sleeveless safari dress/tunic also came in pebble crepe. It had epaulets, two breast pockets with buttoned flaps Slanted lower band pockets, high side slits and a self belt. The colors were sage and natural…..The pebble crepe pull-on crop pant had an easy leg and came in colors to go with all the tops in the group, black, coffee bean, sage and latte. It looked wonderful with both pebble crepe tops, and the swing animal print jacket.
………………….The March 2011 evening show was a profusion of HYDRANGEAS…..A beautiful cotton stretch blazer, pencil skirt and poly jersey knit top. The inspiration for this came directly from my garden. I must have at least twenty five of them on the property. I took many picture of the flowers to design the print from…but they just couldn’t get the leaves right so I picked a dozen of them off the bushes and brought them in to be copied. This was a very special print to me. Just recently I saw the suits in my ware house and I gladly gave them to Chantal and Angela….they were so happy to have them…..The poly/rayon knit tee was a coordinate and came in colors to go with the hydrangea prints……white, green, deep pink and periwinkle.
…………………….The original colors were Pink, Butter, and Navy…….which all coordinated with the print suits.
……………………..This was a very successful print and was reordered a few times, always adding a new color or two.