Monthly Archives: March 2024

………………..As you can see from these many croquis, my fascination with “sheer” continued for Resort 1986. I would sketch everything sheer that came into my head until I was ready to move on…..At the lower left is a white cotton satin, [different from cotton sateen], zip front jacket with a sheer BONED corset midsection. It had faux pocket flaps, and inseam pockets. The jacket had body seams for shape. It also had a narrow collar and lapel…….The cropped bustier was also in the cotton satin. It had a zip front and a sheer boned midsection……The pant was a low rise wide leg style with a side zipper to keep the front and back clean…….The three button, very fitted jacket with oversized patch pockets, at the upper right, had a sheer back…There was also a matching pencil skirt…….All of the sheer fabrics had…….S-T-R-E-T-C-H!

……………..Additional croquis for Resort 86’…..On the left….the stretch rayon matte jersey tank dress with the stretch chiffon back, and wide bordered hem….This particular white matte jersey was weighty and dense enough that it wasn’t see through as some white fabrics can be….Next is a group of rib knit ideas…..a skirt…..in the middle a short sleeve Henley type shirt sweater with cotton poplin trims, and wide leg high waisted tuxedo pants, and a crop cardigan, with elbow sleeves, again with cotton poplin trims worn with stretch cotton crepe side zip shorts.

…..These sketches are part of my “Croquis Series”…..They are quick sketches to jot ideas down…..I do them when an idea comes to me so I don’t forget it latter….For each collection I can sketch well over 200 little drawings of clothes, shoes and accessories….Not all of the sketches become part of the collection, Actually, it’s a much smaller percentage of them that become reality…..The rest I save for another collection, or just store away…..These are croquis I did for my Anne Klein Resort /Summer 1986 collection……I always loved the look of sheer fabrics especially when combined with something opaque in one garment…….Starting at the far left is a silk Organza coat with a cotton poplin collar, lapel, front band and facing, and oversized pockets. The sleeves were finished with cotton bands that rolled up…or not…..The sheer organza shirt has a poplin shirt collar, and stand….a placket front, two breast pockets with buttons, and the 3/4 sleeve had cotton buttoned cuffs….It’s sketched with stretch cotton crepe Capri pants……The sheer chiffon shirt had a poplin notched collar, placket front and ribbed knit cuffs on the 3/4 length sleeves [sketched pushed up]…It’s sketched with a ribbed knit skirt…..The short sheer chiffon “sweater” had short sleeves with sweater knit rib bands finishing it off…..The chiffon jacket below has cotton crepe trims. It is shown worn over a rayon/cotton lycra blend dress……..The linen/cotton blend tunic sweater in the center is worn over a short chiffon skirt…The sweater had exaggerated ribbed borders…..The fabric ideas jotted down…were just that…ideas….Some would be changed later when the sketch got put into sample making……..Considering these croquis were done over 38 years ago……I think they are still modern, and I would use them today!

…………….In a sea of ridiculous clothes that walked down the Fall 24/25 runways there were a few voices of sanity………I LOVED Isabel Marant’s Fall collection as seen on YouTube. This is just a tiny sampling of the beautiful WEARABLE outfits she presented……..My kind of clothes!

………………….I was still in high school when this picture was taken so it must have been 1965 0r 1966……..My brother Mauro, the oldest of three boys, is 7 years older than me. He’s 6’3″ to my 5’10″…. He had recently come back from his tour in the service when the photo was taken. He was stationed in Berlin, Germany during the cold war, and the Berlin Wall, while the Vietnam War was building up at the other end of the planet….My Mom in the middle was our rock…..I know for certain I would not have become the person I am today without her….She supported, and ENCOURAGED everything I ever did!…I thought the world of my brother when I was very young, but as we got older we had very little in common, and the age gap seemed to widen us. We weren’t very close…..It was when I got older, and started to work, and he married and had a family that our lives started to converge again. I loved his wife Kathy and I adored his blond, blue eyed children!………Today we are very close….We are all the family we have left. I depend on him for all the questions I have no answers to, and he always comes through for me. I speak to him almost every day…..even ask him when the next Yankee game is on….He put the “YES” app on my phone so I could find out for myself, but I still would rather call him and ask him…..Thank God for facetime!…..He’s very smart in ways that I never was. He was always great with math, and I had to go to summer school! He’s a tech and loves gadgets, and can fix almost everything!!!. To me it’s all a great mystery…but….he has always said to me….”you can push a pencil around a piece of paper like no other”………We are really two different sides of a coin, but we are brothers, and we love each other, and in the end that’s all that matters.