Yearly Archives: 2023

…………………After Dinner we moved to the main hall where Jessye Norman preformed……..I had never seen her in real life, and she was FANTASTIC. Afterwards there was dancing. The Reagans started the first dance, but soon left to go to their private quarters. Eventually the crowd thinned out as people were leaving…..I went back to the hotel where Jac was waiting. I told her every detail of the evening…..She wanted to know what Mrs, Reagan was wearing….I explained she was in a long forest green silk cloque gown that skimmed her slender body….It had a jewel neckline, and at the bottom was a shirred tier about two feet wide. She wore emerald and diamond earrings, and around her neck was a torsade of cabochon emeralds….It was magnificent!! I told her every room we entered was still decorated for Christmas.  They were serving cocktails in two or three of the rooms so it gave the guests a chance to look at all of the beautiful rooms and decorations…. When it started to snow outside and you could see it through the windows from each room it was absolutely like a fairytale……It was a wonderful evening……An evening I will never forget. I am so glad I kept these momentos to remember the evening by!

………………….On January 14th, 1986 I was invited to a black tie State Dinner at the White House….It was in honor of President Cordero of the Republic of Ecuardor…..I had known Betsy Bloomingdale who was best friends with Nancy Reagan. Nancy was introduced to the Anne Klein Collection through Betsy, and they were both customers. I was thrilled to get this invitation and had great anticipation of what the evening would be like……Jac and I went to Washington DC and stayed across the street from the White House at the beautiful Blair House Hotel. The view of the White house from our room war beautiful!…. Unfortunately, Jac wasn’t invited to the events because we weren’t married, and they didn’t invite someone’s fiance or “girlfriend”…….so I had to tell Jac in great detail everything that happened……I was also invited in the late morning to the White House to greet the President of Ecuador. If memory serves there were about 40 or 50 people there. I had hired a limo for the day so it took me to the White house where I had to go through the gates and be checked in. Then I was greeted at the front door and escorted to a large room on the main floor called the “China Room”, where coffee was served. It was January and it was very cold. Snow was predicted! The group was led out through the back doors of the W.H to the back lawn at the appropriate time, and stood behind velvet ropes. I remember walking out behind Doris Duke, the billionaire tobacco heiress. She was friends with Nancy Reagan……I really had to restrain myself from laughing, because she was wearing a cheetah coat with a hood She was wearing the hood up, and the hood still had the ears sticking up!……We stood outside in the cold until the helicopter arrived, landed and the President came out to greet the President of Ecuador……When the men went inside we were again escorted inside for more coffee and then escorted out of the White House…..The entire event was very coordinated from the time I entered the gates until I left…..Back to the hotel I went to give a full report to Jac. We spent the day at the Smithsonian Museum. You could spend a month there and still not see everything……We had lunch and then we went back to the hotel so I could rest and prepare for the evening ahead…….More on the State Dinner!

…………………….As I was looking through draws and boxes of old photos……I came across this European agency card of Jac’s …….Jac had two “model cards” or “head shots”….one for the US, and one for Europe. She was with the Ellen Harth Inc. agency which had a division in Europe. She looks 6 feet tall in the photo with beautiful legs that go on and on. She did both the Ready To Wear shows and the Couture in Europe.

………………….In the late 70s a major event that was televised was created.  It was called “NIGHT OF 100 STARS”…..It paired designers with celebrities……..Armando, who I’ve mentioned in a previous post, was both a dear friend of mine and of Linda Evans. He always did her hair for “Dynasty”, and all event’s she had to attend. He told her she should have Donna and I dress her for this major TV show. The woman was like 6 feet tall, size 12 shoulders with size 6 hips!…..A true GLAMAZON! We designed and made for her an ivory cashmere knit long dress with dolman sleeves. It was high in the front but had a deep V in the back to the waist. Around her waist was a thick ivory silk cord with tassels which was attached to a large Ivory CARA CRONNIGER infinity buckle. She also wore two large carved Ivory cuffs also by Cara…….She absolutely loved it, and said it was the perfect dress for her……..She looked stunning….We gave her the dress and accessories…….After all it was made to fit her body, and no one else could possibly wear it………Linda was just as you would have thought she would be……the sweetest, friendliest, down to earth LADY…….I could certainly understand why she and Armando were so close.

……………….You may recall my tale of Barbra Streisand coming up to the Anne Klein Studio because she had seen beautiful CHENILLE SWEATERS and HATS that I designed in a recent VOGUE magazine…..She loved them and WANTED them under no certain terms. However, they were flammable, and we couldn’t sell them to her….She wasn’t hearing it, and after signing all kinds of releases we ended up just giving her what she wanted. That’s her wearing the hat and cardigan. She wore them in the 1979 movie “The Main Event” with Ryan O’Neil………Going back in time to 1978, Donna and I with four models did a cover shoot for Women’s Wear Daily for the 1978 Fall previews……In the center is a model named Beverly wearing the PURPLE CHENILLE SWEATER and matching CHENILLE HAT with a silk and wool challis floral print skirt in coordinating colors……That season Vogue photographed  three or four of the sweaters, and this was one of the outfits they editorialized…….I just recently found this very old and very worn piece of newspaper I had badly stored away…..I thought it would be interesting to tie the stories together. I wish I had the pictures from Vogue. They must be in their archives. The sweaters were beautiful made from a very special Italian yarn that I had never seen before, and never used again!…….It was an extraordinary chenille…..too bad all of the sweaters and hats had to be destroyed……….except for the samples Barbra had.