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……………….March 2001 was my second year at QVC, and my third show…….it was still all so knew to Jac and me……..Cotton stretch for jackets and bottoms, cotton/acrylic blends for sweaters [I’m sure if you still have sweaters in this blend they are like knew. It was a great quality yarn], and silk crepe de chine and silk georgette for solid and printed shirts. In the early days China was the only place where you could get silk. Actually it still is. Since they had a monopoly over the silk worm fiber silk fabrics were very inexpensive at the time. Europe still to this day imports silk fibers from China. They spin it themselves and make their own fabric, but the yarn all comes from China. I remember when printers in the Como area of Italy tried to grow their own silk worms and make their own fibers. It was a disaster….the worms died. Elaine used to say to me design silk, design silk, because the fabrics were incredibly priced. For years we made everything in silk. Then one year China decided to raise all the prices for silk and that was that. Silk disappeared from the Linea line overnight…….Above, is a wonderful drop shoulder, unlined cotton stretch jacket. The inside was all piped in contrast color. The under collar and turn back cuff were also contrast color. The bottom row of sweater were all in the cotton/acrylic. In the middle is the reorder sketch of the “Jockey Shirt” in new colors. The top row has two print silk big shirts. One is a take on an Hermes scarf print with harnesses, straps and horse bits. The stripe shirt next to it was a stripe with no repeat…..meaning the entire shirt was made with different printed stripes. We introduced a suede and leather color block tote to work with the entire collection…….The bold stripe sweaters at the right did incredibly well and were reordered for 3 years straight!