………………..Sept 06 was chocked full of fabulous things!!!!!! Starting at the lower left was a fabulous suede jacket that came in the most beautiful GOLDENROD color and BLACK. It had a jewel neckline that had an opening which created a V, and came down and kissed just above the waist line. There was a slight cutaway to the bottom. By making the closure above the waist and not at the waist allowed me to make the bottom half of the jacket longer in proportion that the top which ALWAYS makes you look longer and leaner.The jacket had TWO BODY SEAMS in the front and two seams in the back. The fact that it was real suede meant that I had to have horizontal seams for the size of the skins. Instead of doing them the usual way by just making horizontal cuts I decided to make them all on a slant creating Vs which also helped me to give the jacket a certain shape, and also made the body look longer and slimmer. It had a self suede tie closing which was attached on one side so you couldn’t lose it! I had done a very similar jacket to this at Anne Klein and Jac still had it. I brought it in to Elaine for her to see the very special grommet. It was not your typical punched on grommets with prongs in the back….oh no not for me…..The one I used for the AK jacket was hardware used for bags….expensive hand bags. The front and back looked the same with full metal grommets…only prongs didn’t keep in on the jacket. These special grommets screwed on with tiny screws. Elaine looked at me like I had ten heads!!! I remember her saying we aren’t doing couture with hand screwed grommets!!!!! It was actually very funny…..We had to send Jac’s jacket over so they could see the grommet with the screws! As it turned out it wasn’t as difficult as we thought it would be. Within two weeks they returned Jac’s jacket with samples of “The Grommet” screwed into pieces of suede for us to look at. The jacket was done…….The sweater set, cardigan and short sleeve shell had gold metal studs all over it with small gold buttons down the front that looked like the studs. Jac and I loved this set and she wore it a lot…..It came in BLACK and CLARET RED both with gold studs…….The jacket above was a zip front velour jacket that had very dimensional horizontal TRAPUNTO STITCHING at the hems of the jacket and the sleeves. It came in BLACK and a beautiful vivid VIOLET………The next sweater jacket was the WINNER OF THE SHOW!! It was a wool OTTOMAN STITCH cardigan. An ottoman stitch is a horizontal rib. It is as dimensional as the gauge and yarn it is made in. These were made on 5 gauge machines so the rib was pronounced……I made the GOLD NUGGET BUTTON to go with them….This was a sweater I had done for Anne Klein in fabulous colors with the same gold nugget buttons. The cardigan had band knit pocket set in on a slant for easy entrance…. The colors were bright and pure [the swatches above photographed are pale except for the red]. …..RED, BLACK, ROYAL BLUE and KELLY GREEN were the colors and all sold out in a flash…..Needless to say these were reordered for two or three more years! The blouse to the right was made in a beautiful silk crepe georgette. It had a lovely small collar and beautiful stitched down pleats in the front. The sleeves had shirring in the cap and the full bottoms were shirred into French cuffs. Tiny faux shell buttons closed the front placket…….The next jewel neck, elbow sleeve sweater was made in one of my most favorite fancy stitches. It is called “Frosted Flowers”, and hand knitters know it well. It has old world charm…….,A knit pant was part of this group…..The BOHO tiered skirt below was made in my original RAYON/SILK crushed velvet. It was light and silky….a true designer fabric….unfortunately when the silk prices escalated it was another fabric we couldn’t use…For those of you who still may have this skirt you have something very special. Today crushed velvet is made out of polyester or maybe a blend of rayon and poly We did the skirt in BLACK, CLARET RED and VIOLET to work with the sweaters and blouses. The black skirt look fantastic with the gold grommet suede jacket and a black TN. It would look just as fabulous now………FIFTEEN YEARS LATER!
What a chic sweater coat. I missed this one but
I have another one that I won’t talk about in case
you want to show it down the line. The colors are
Beautiful. How do you decide which colors will sell,
and how do you decide that the ottoman sweater will
be certain colors and the trapunto jacket will sell in
colors that are completely different ?
Cela…it’s….instinct and a crystal ball
So now we’re getting to the place where I still haven’t gone deep in my giveaways! I have the ottoman sweater in black, the suede jacket with grommet in black, the studded front sweater in black and I just gave up the claret embroidered boucle jacket. No way I’m giving up any of these beauties. The ottoman sweater takes up so much room in my drawer that I have given it careful consideration for giveaway on more than one occasion, but damn it’s too good! I have another super bulky sweater that has turn lock fasteners down the front, trimmed in leather. It has a matching dress. I used to have burgundy and black, but now just the burgundy.
On another note, I have not updated my dvr settings, so I was surprised to have a Linea show on my dvr this morning. I fast forwarded through it, and whoever styled that show should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. Just saying. Don’t look if you haven’t already–it won’t help your heart.
Happy Valentine’s Day from your lovely Linea ladies.
Carol get a plastic bin from the Container Store or Home Depot, and put the bulky sweaters in one of those so that will easy up room in your drawer. Put it under a bed or the floor of a closet…I love those pieces you have…I have absolutely nothing to do with those shows anymore. When I know one is going to be on I will DVR it just out of curiosity….Oh Lord when I looked at this mornings show they started off OK. It was minimal and better not to accessorize than accessorize badly. Katia always looks good…..but Betty in the window pane aqua shirt and the double layer gauze pant in the black and blue was just awful…….That’s a perfect example of NOT EVERYTHING GOES WITH EVERYTHING!….That’s why I ALWAYS did my own shows. There are very very few stylists that are creative….in a good way.
I had to LOL at your comment about the bins, because literally HALF of all my clothes are in bins right now. Under the bed, on top of the closet, filling what used to be my son’s room’s closet and his old dresser, under his old bed, in the spare bedroom closet–anywhere I could fit things, including my vast shoe and jewelry collection. I am going to will it all to you, Louis, because otherwise my husband or son will send it all to Goodwill!
The pink shirt and blue strip pants was jaw dropping to say the least.
Dear Carol, I thank you for the gesture…BUT DON’T! I’m trying slowly to divest myself of 20 years of samples. I have already given a ton away to charity organizations. I don’t remember your size but maybe your son’s future wife would like some of them. Thank goodness Angela, Chantal, Kate and my niece all fit my samples What they don’t want is going to a charity for abused women who are starting their lives over. If they are a size xxs or xs they will have a great wardrobe…..LOL
HI, Louis! I always knew I was in (good) trouble anytime you offered saturated, cool, jewel colors. Many of my vintage Linea garments remain among my favorites, including these silk/rayon bohos, which I bought in Black and in Violet. There was NOTHING like them either then or now. But that is true of so much of my Linea. XXOO Barbara