……………………….You all know how much I love knits and sweaters………..I learned everything I know about sweaters from working in the Italian sweater factories from the age of 20. I worked with a wonderful young woman named Giovanna Pestelli Ciampini….She suggested when she was in NYC to my boss at the time Alan Duddle, that I come back to Italy with here to develop the sweaters for the Giorgini Collection. Giorgini was a division of Originala, and this was the first design job I had. Allan took a big chance on this young man with very little experience. He agreed to let me go, and that was my first trip to Italy……I worked with Giovanna for the three years I designed the Giorgini line. When I went to Anne Klein I worked with Giovanna from my the very first collection, and our relationship continued for 20 more years. At the time the AK company was making their sweaters in a single factory in Brooklyn using one yarn!!! I opened up the world of knitwear to the company…..Knits became a major part, and a big money maker for the AK collection…….Again, I would spend two weeks working with Giovanna in Italy…Her office was in an ancient building on Via de’ Tornabuoni, near the Ferragamo shop and directly in front of the Egyptian obelisk….The tiny elevator in the building was added in modern times, but could only hold three people tightly. We only took it when Marcello, Giovanna’s husband, was with us. He would walk the four flights and we took the elevator. We did this just in case the elevator got stuck, and he would be on the outside to get help. More times than not we also walked the stairs!! The first week we worked in her office in the center of Florence, Italy. The first week was about designing the collection and seeing yarn companies. I did many sketches and brought them with me….but….when I started to see the yarn companies with their wonderful samples [we had appointments in the office every hour and 1/2], I started anew. I would make selections of yarns and go to work. Sometimes the sketches I brought fit right in with the yarns I saw and sometimes the yarns were so fabulous they needed new designs…..which I did in the office or in my hotel room in the evening after ordering room service at the Principe Savoir. A car and driver would pick us up at 6:00am to take us to the different factories that we selected would best make the samples. Some were across Italy and it would take three hours plus to get there. They would also show us new things they were working on, and if I thought they would work in the collection I would incorporate them. I always had to redesign them, because they usually weren’t right for the American woman as they were………Giovanna’s family became my family, and she is like a sister to me. She lives in the hills overlooking Florence…..a magnificent view of Florence….While I worked with her she had two beautiful sons, Lorenzo and Leonardo, who are now married with children of their own…Her husband Marcello, taught me every DIRTY Italian word I know…..I love him!!!! When she would catch him teaching me this colorful vocabulary…..she would exclaim…..MARCELLO!!!! Somehow it all sounds better in Italian!…….Unfortunately, I haven’t seen her in years. Jac and I were always going to Florence to visit, but it didn’t happen…. Thank goodness for e-mails…She sends pictures of the family, and we can keep in touch…We still hope to meet again in beautiful Florence……The sweater dress and matching cardigan above was one of the sketches I brought with me. It was in a fine Merino wool……..The Bucket Bag in woven leather was part of my shoe and bag collection all made in Italy. ALL of the Anne Klein jewelry was made in the USA in factories in RI. and Mass. For the 20 years I worked at AK the collections were either made in the US or Italy.