“THE TAXI SPREAD CON’T”

……………….The Taxi spread was FIVE pages. The photos they used were of my most current Resort collection that was being sold in the showroom, and the next fall collection I was still working on. I chose Dalma, a wonderful Brazilian model, to do the shoot. She was very exotic and worked for EVERYONE on both sides of the Atlantic. She was one of the most popular runway models at the time, and retired at the height of her career. Everyone was shocked and pleaded with her to reconsider. However, she realized there was a new crop of younger models coming up, and would rather quit at the top than all of a sudden find herself getting the less important looks from designer’s collections. She was smart….something most models would never consider. She moved to Italy, worked for Valentino behind the scenes. married and is raising a family. She still looks incredible! The picture at the bottom is of Mark, one of my assistants, who was a brilliant illustrator, and Orfeo Dugo, my assistant pattern maker. He was in charge of one of my sample rooms that made 90% of my woven jackets…..He was brilliant….He also made ALL of my personal suits. I loved him dearly. He passed away while working for me from colon cancer. He was miss diagnosed. His doctor said he had stomach ulcers. I convinced him to get a second opinion, because he was always in pain. That’s when they found out. He died four months later. He was only in his early 50s. I think of Orfeo often……..The swatch board to the extreme right was my current Fall board. Pinned to it were fabrics I was working on [all black and ivory] and a red crocodile belt hanging on top. The sketches were quick croquis I had done of styles that were in work in the sample rooms. This is one of the few magazine articles I was able to get. Most of them stayed in the Anne Klein library after I left………never to be seen again.

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Jaye Jones

    Dear Mr Dell’olio-

    Hello from another life-long fan! I, as so many others have told you, have been devoted to you and your fashion creations since your Anne Klein days. I did not know that you had a line with QVC until four years ago- What a joy it was for me to finally hear your voice and get to know your wonderful personality when you did the live shows on air… Thank you for the lovely clothes choices, not to mention the jewelry! Because of your Linea line, I feel well-dressed again….( Options are scarce in the smaller city that we have moved to!) Please accept belated condolences from a stranger regarding the loss of your beautiful wife – Seeing your photographs and reading about the love that you two shared is a gift. Thank you.
    A humble request: Please do not stop writing your “Blog”- I look forward to reading it every day although I have never written a comment before, as so many others have stated… Your commentary, travel log and flashback articles and photographs are fantastic! Please tell us more… All love always from another admirer, Best- Jaye Jones

Comments are closed.