Designer

……………….Jac and took this trip to Hawaii for business and pleasure! I was doing a trunk show for “Liberty House” which was the major store on the Island of Oahu…….We went with Joe Stafiniak, my sales manager at Anne Klein, and Connie Francis who was my publicist and basically my Girl Friday. We flew to LA and then connected to the flight to Oahu…..When we landed everyone’s luggage arrived…..except mine!!!!! At the time I had luggage from a NY store called “Hunting World”. It was beautiful, and very expensive!!!! We notified the airline that my luggage was missing and they said they would locate it and send it on to the hotel. I only had the clothes I was wearing! When we got to the hotel Joe called our buyer at Liberty house and told her what happened. She said not to worry there must have been a mix up in the connection….DUH! In the mean time I had to go shopping for essentials until my luggage arrived. I was happy it was my luggage that was missing and not Jac’s!!!! Well no luggage showed up the next day! The buyer picked me up and I went to Liberty House to get a new wardrobe for the trip. The photo is of me in my new clothes. It was a good thing at the time I could fit in off the rack clothes! I had to get two suits, shirts, ties, tees, shorts, underwear, two bathing suit, shoes and sneakers and flip flops….ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!……My beautiful luggage never came, nor did my Armani suits and everything else I took with me…..What can you do?! I hoped that when I got home it would show up behind my door, but it never did. I never replaced the luggage, because to tell you the truth, as beautiful as it was…it was heavy as hell! The rest could be replaced. I wasn’t, and I’m still not a jewelry person so I was wearing my watch and ring……I got myself some great vintage Hawaiian shirts and shorts, and the four of us had a wonderful time. The show was a success….the people at Liberty House were happy, and they ended up giving me the clothes for free…..They weren’t Armani, but what the heck! On one of our days off we took the perilous drive along the winding coast to Hanna [I drove all the way], and made stops to take pictures. When we reached Hanna we ate and I drove back!…..Was it worth the trip? For me who was driving….not really, but everyone else loved the views. I had to keep my eyes on the road so we didn’t go off a cliff! I have more pictures of our trip somewhere. I’ll have to look.

………………………In the front of each new “Look Book” that AK put out….a current photo was taken of me to put in the opening pages……..We used this photo for both a Spring Look Book and press kits. I always liked this soulful picture of me. i believe the photographer was Michael Doster.

…………………..It’s almost May….do you have your perfect Spring/Summer earring? For me this is it!…… QVC is running a 5 EZ PAY promotion. Take advantage of it while it’s on!

……………………..YEP!……….that’s me….age 2I used to stand on the cement step. but was still too short to reach over the cement basin, so my Dad use to pick me up so I could press the silver or maybe 2 1/2…..We were in some park in Brooklyn…..I remember I was always fascinated by the drinking fountains like the one behind me, and the silver button you had to hold down to get that stream of water…..I would get up on the cement step, but I was still too short to reach over the  basin and press the magic button that would release the stream of water……so my Dad would pick me up so I could press the button MYSELF……The only problem was I didn’t want to stop well after I had my sip of water……………….. Funny the things you remember

………………………….What I first realized when I met Lorraine in the early 90s…..was…..What you see is what you get……She is just as gregarious as you might imagine, and just as friendly…….We were paired to do a “W Magazine” photo for their Fall Preview of the Designer Collections. I knew little about Lorraine except for what I had seen of her in her movies…….A meeting was set up for her to come to my studio to try on my new Fall collection to see what would suit her……I had no idea that before Lorraine became an actress she was a model in both the US, but mostly in Paris where she lived and married a French hairdresser who she met at the shows. They had a daughter, but the marriage didn’t last, and she and her daughter moved back to the US, and her acting career began…….I was pleasantly surprised to see Lorraine still had a model’s figure and was very slim. I knew her from “Goodfellas”, and “Someone to Watch Over Me”. We hit it off immediately…..Two Italians with similar backgrounds……The theme of my new collection was Menswear. After trying on quite a few things, that fit her perfectly, having lots of fun and laughs, we decided Lorraine looked fabulous in a two piece pant suit in two coordinating subtle tweeds, a simple silk shirt,  flat men’s wear lace up shoes with a platform, and minimal jewelry. She loved it, looked great in it, and felt totally comfortable…..The shoot took place and the photo of Lorraine and I was published. I only wish I had a copy!……Lorraine came to my show which was at Lincoln Center, and we became fast friends. She and Jac got along great, and found out they both had mutual friends in Paris…..How’s that for 3 degrees of separation!!!…..At the time Lorraine was seeing Edward James Olmos, and we had a few dinners together. When they got married at the Pierre Hotel, Lorraine invited us to the very small cocktail party…..Unfortunately, the marriage only lasted a short few years. I felt badly, because I really thought they were a great couple……..but…..as the saying goes…..you never know what goes on behind closed doors…………………Over the years, like so many relationships and friendships, we lost touch……..but I’m sure if I ran into Lorraine today we would greet each other with big smiles and hugs….I can hear her voice with her Brooklyn accent yelling…..LOUIS!….as if no time had passed!