……………………..The picture of Donna and me was taken in the early 80s…………Donna and I had a mutual friend, Leslie Mesh. Leslie and I went to High School together and Donna and Leslie went to summer camp together. I remember Leslie as a very hip, cool and mature girl for her age. She introduced me to pot! When she found out her friend Donna Faske [later Karan] and I were both going to Parsons School of Design she said “you two must meet”. One day after school in early summer of 1966, Leslie and I drove over to Donna’s, which was about 20 minutes from us. Leslie drove her dad’s Cadillac convertible. Donna was sitting on her from steps. She was very thin and tall. Her hair was pulled back tightly into a ponytail, and she was wearing big sunglasses. She had on a skimpy ribbed white tank [we used to call them ginny tees, not so PC today], and cut off very short shorts. They were jeans she cut herself. She also wore gladiator sandals that wrapped all the way up to her knees. I knew at once we were going to be best friends!….and that’s what we became. It was Kismet….We were the only two students from Long Island so we worked together on our school projects all the time…….sometimes at her house and sometimes at mine. My mother would always make us an Italian dinner. We worked all through the night, and went straight to school bleary eyed. We were two peas in a pod, and had all of the same classes together. We became BFF…. After second year Donna got a summer intern job at Anne Klein, and Anne convinced her not to go back to school. She told Donna you’ll learn more on the job than any school could teach you. So she didn’t return. The school was not happy AK was poaching students! I got the Norman Norell Scholarship to complete my third year so I returned to Parsons. I missed my side kick, but we always kept in touch. When I started to work on 7th Ave we would grab lunch together whenever she could get out. Anne didn’t come in until 11am or noon, so it was hard for Donna to get out for lunch, and they worked all hours of the night so dinners weren’t often, but we did have the phone……This was way before e-mails and texts. Eventually I got the call from Chip Rubinstein, Anne’s husband….He wanted to know if I would consider leaving my design job, and come to work with Anne and Donna…..Little did Donna and I know that Anne was dying from breast cancer that came back after four years of remission…….I said yes, and Donna and I were so happy to be together again. When Anne passed it was a great shock. Chip called me and assured me they still wanted me to come to the company, I said yes again. We didn’t know this was Anne and Chip’s plan all the time…….We worked together for nine years, and we were 22 when we started together. During the nine years we worked together as co designers, we won three Coty Awards [the Fashion industries Oscar]. Then we were inducted into the Coty Hall of Fame….all before we were 31…..We grew the company from a 10 million dollar company to a 100 million dollar company when Donna left to create her own label. I continued on at Anne Klein as Chief designer and design director of all the Anne Klein divisions for another 11 years. When I left the company was doing over 500 million a year. The two “kids”, as we were called by Bill Cunningham, made fashion history. Bill was a famous fashion photographer who traveled all over NYC taking candid shots of interesting people…..I believe he took the photo above…….BTW, there were very few times in my life that I grew a full beard. This was one of them and everyone loved it….. everyone but Jac!
Louis, what an inspiring story. If you can, please do a Throwback” incorporating your school sketches , if you still have them! 🤗
Love this picture! Of course you didn’t wear a beard because Jac didn’t like it. You’re that kind of husband! Love these flash backs. Keep them coming!
I admire that you “danced with the girl you brought to the dance” so to speak (you stuck with what you know and love and did not switch mid-course and you are a loyal friend). It seems that you were under pressure last year to do leisure wear and you did not succumb because that is not your wheelhouse. Now, wear to work clothes are coming back; I sure wish management could have waited out the trend a little. Did anyone really think that we would slouch around in pjs forever? I didn’t start working until 1992, so that was at the end of your tenure at AK I believe. I always liked AK when I was younger (I did not buy many clothes at that price point, though)nbecause the clothes fit me (I was short and small and at the time AK had some jackets that were sporty and short and they suited me more than long jackets). Sometimes a size 2 was too big (and that was before vanity sizing). When the tv show Ally McBeal came out, I could relate to the feeling like a little girl in a grown up world (strangers would stop me and say that I looked like Ally- probably more because of my size and wardrobe than my facial features).
HI Louis!
I love the picture and your story! Thank you so much for sharing!
Diana
Oh, Louis, I adore hearing your stories! It brings back some wonderful memories of a city that I loved and the electricity in the air, all the creative possibilities, the joy of youth and the love of work in a creative field. You and I are the same age and I lived and worked in Manhattan in the creative field. It makes me sad that so many small unique shops are gone. Tender buttons on the East side in the 60’s, a treasure trove especially for blazer buttons (male or female), two wonderful sister who made the most beautiful silk flowers in the whole wide world. Hyman Hendler who’s ribbons were to die for. The flower market early in the morning, the scents and abundance of beauty and armfuls of flowers taken to work to fill the office with heaven’s scent.
How fabulous for you and Donna to be right in the middle of the fashion center and have such great success at a young age and to be able to enjoy it. Not everyone’s dreams come true but yours did and we reap the benefits! You are blessed with a talent for writing as well. You have a very easy way of drawing us in and making it seem as if it is a conversation between the two of us which is difficult to achieve. Once you have completed your retrospective of the QVC designs, I am hoping you will reach into your AK vault and give us some of your very favorites! Thank you for today’s story, it made my afternoon! Cat
Dear Cat…..I was so very lucky that my dreams did come true. I was in the right place at just the right time. The late 60s, when I was a student in NYC was the birth of the fashion industry. All of us students at Parsons saw what was happening around us, and jumped in with both feet….doing and experiencing things few kids at our age were open to. NYC was where it was all happening. It was on a trajectory that was going straight up. The 60s, 70s, 80s and early 90s was definitely the Golden Age of American Fashion, and American culture. 7th Avenue was bustling with electricity….38th, 39th and 40th street was the epicenter and you knew it. It was all about the fashion business all the time….even the coffee shops and local bar/restaurants were filled with people in the business.Models were going here and there all day long…..The clubs, the restaurants, the underground culture…the PEOPLE!!!! The high brow and low brow, the upper east side people and the village people, the birth of SOHO, the fabulous hangouts like Max’s Kansas city, the hidden away dance clubs where only the “in” crowd were allowed it was so exciting….Now it’s all gone. 7th Ave is a conduit of people coming from Pen Station going to Times Square! The business and the people who made it all happen are long gone……It’s very sad….The up and coming design students have no place to look up to….no land of Oz. When I went to 7th Ave to go to Elaine’s office on 38th Street I didn’t recognize anything from the past. It’s all gone. The only thing that let’s anyone know what it used to be is the street sign that says “Fashion Ave”……….In between my QVC retrospective I plan to take a break and do another “AK Look Book” series, Unfortunately, I have very few of them. We didn’t start doing them until very late.
Louis,
What a wonderful picture and story. You have had a life rich with experience and friendships. (I have had the same, you just wouldn’t recognize any of the names or faces. LOL) Thank for for sharing it all with us. I agree with Evelyn’s comments about communicating with your ladies. I feel so blessed that you came to QVC and into my life.
Louis,
Thanks for sharing your stories with us.I love reading it all. I didn’t know that you & Donna Karen were friends since high school. That’s awesome.Those kind of friendships are very special.
You’re work ethic & attention to quality & detail are amazing. That’s definitely old school. Is there any chance that you & Donna Karan may team up & put out a line together? That would be incredible.
I can tell by your designs that you also have a great deal of respect for women. I also saw it in the way you interacted with the hosts & models at QVC. You’re a real gentleman. That translated into elegant, classy & sometimes sexy clothes.
You’re also the only major designer I know of who cared enough about their customers to create a space for them to communicate with you. Thank you, I look forward to reading more of your stories.