Yearly Archives: 2024

……………………”Thinking of Elena…….Elena Elstrom was a very dear friend of Jac’s….who became a dear friend of mine…….She was a Swedish model who Jac met in Europe. When Elena moved to the states they became very close, and worked a lot in the same shows…Many times they were paired together on the runway, because of their similar look….blond hair, tall and willowy….they just worked well together…..Elena LOVED GREECE and the dark haired handsome men….Opposites do attract! She and Jac traveled all over Greece together. This was before Jac and I were a couple……On one of these trips through the Pelopnnese, the southern peninsular of Greece, they were traveling in a van with a group of four musicians that were Elena’s friends. They made stops along the way where the band played in tavernas……At one of these tavernas a young man tried to pick Jac up, but she had her mind on someone else…..me…….so she introduced Elena to Angelo. They hit it off immediately, and not long after that got married…..Eventually, when Jac and I got together, we made many trips to Greece to visit Elena and Angelo. They had a son….Yanni…..Angelo and I became good friends……This picture was taken, by Angelo on the island of Mykonos….way before it became the “party island” it is now! There were only 3 small simple hotels!!…..We were out to dinner and Elena is selecting live crabs for our meal………..Those trips were the best of times!…….Elena, Angelo and I are still close, but Jac is terribly missed.

………………These are the opening pages of my…..Last Spring Look Book for Anne Klein………….featuring Christy Turlington……………Christy is wearing a fine textured SILK/LYCRA unitard with a fine woven waffle weave textured wrap skirt made with the same SILK/LYCRA yarns……She’ wearing a wide contour brown leather belt, wide leather cuffs and large leather hoop earrings….It was also my NATIONAL AD…………..Christy was gorgeous!

………………….This is a series of two dresses, right and left, and a top and skirt, center. The fabric was both a solid silk and rayon velvet, and a crushed silk/rayon velvet with a paisley design. The bias slip dress to the left had a matching shawl with hand applied and knotted long fringe…..The center sketch is a solid velvet top with shear stretch illusion, over a crushed velvet bias paisley patterned skirt…..and the dress to the right was the plain velvet midi sheath with an illusion top….I NEVER put front armholes in the stretch illusion….but there was a back armhole from the shoulder seam to the underarm seam. This construction kept the front clean and smooth, and the back armhole prevented any extra fabric from puckering and kept it all close fitting…….These dresses were done for Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Holt Renfrew in Canada

………………..CHRISTY TURLINGTON………is one of my all time favorite models!….Her soft voice matched her personality…..After all the years we worked together I never saw her get ruffled….always kind….always composed….Christy did many of my shows, and I hired her many times for “Look Books”, and “National Ads”…….Christy has a beauty that is hard to define….A lot of her beauty came from within……….Her face had a fragility to it that few possess…..If you wanted her to be the girl next door without any make up….she was perfection…..she was the one all teenage boys wanted as their girlfriend, but thought they could never have….She became a chameleon, and could take on any role you wanted her to play….A 20’s vamp…..a high society lady…..an odalisque from a Matisse painting…………no problem…….Christy was….and still is a natural….one of the few SUPERMODELS still working today……Beautiful on the outside…definitely…..but she I’m sure she would like to be know more for her charitable work, and the causes she fights for every day…..Though we lost contact many years ago…..I see her on talk shows and on the current runways…….Christy is so much more than a SUPERMODEL…………….she’s a SUPER PERSON!

……………….I was very happy and proud to see the picture of Christy from one of my National Ads on the cover of “AMERICAN FASHION”!