Designer

………………….RAYON CADET was also a fabric that became one of the major stand outs of the collection….The fabric tailored beautifully for jackets, pants, skirts and dresses……Yasmeen, at the extreme left is wearing one of my most successful jackets on the collection. It was a V-neck button front jacket, which buttoned with three buttons. It wasn’t necessary to wear anything under it if the wear so chose. It was a fitted jacket  with long slim sleeves. What everyone loved was the shiny black buttons that buttoned on both hips. The long cadet skirt had a high slit…..The IVORY CADET Blazer was superbly tailored. I showed it with the BARE MIDRIFF CROCHET TOP and black Cadet trousers. Surprisingly the midriff crochet top sold quite well!……Below the Ivory blazer is a black georgette sheer peasant top that I showed with black bras…..The Black Cadet skirt was styled with SAILOR d details. It had shiny buttons to accent the “sailor flap” front. The long slim skirt also had a slit for walking……………The center photo on Gail was my short, one button tailored blazer in the Rayon Cadet. She is wearing it with a bare midriff Cadet tank and a Cadet midi sarong skirt. The belt was in the self Cadet fabric, which we did sell…….The photo at the top right is a georgette crepe SAILOR BLOUSE with a black georgette tie bow. She is wearing it with HIGH RISE CADET black SAILOR pants. They were fitted at the top and had a wide flare at the bottom.. The picture of Gail below on the right shows an ELONGATED jacket in the black Cadet over fit and flare wide leg pants……The fabric had a beautiful matte sheen to it….just like the silk versions of Cadet.

…………………..In the Spring 1992 collection there were FOUR HAND CROCHET styles…..Here are just two of them. Fran, the head of my knit wear, and I spent weeks developing these pieces. She would hand crochet all of the elements and we would pin them on a piece of muslin in the shapes of the garments they were planned for. When we were satisfied she crocheted them together. It took hours and hours. Then she had to create a chart for other knitters to follow….way to complicated for me!!!! What you can’t see well in the photos is there were also BLACK BALL BEADS crocheted through out the garments…….The tunic on the left had bell sleeves and a ballet neckline…….The dress, as you can see, was a sort of V-neck fitted long dress. The other two styles were a V-neck sleeveless version of the bell sleeve tunic and a CROPPED sleeveless scoop neck bare midriff tank that I showed under ivory jackets with black bottoms. All four styles were sold UNLINED!!! There was a lot of discussion about this, but I insisted that the women that wanted a garment like this would supply her own under garments………or NOT…..We sold them unlined, and there were no complaints.

………………..The STORY!!! and it’s a doozy!…..When I did the line up for the show, meaning which model would wear which outfit…..I planned for Naomi Campbell to wear the tunic, and for the “HOT new comer” Tyra Banks. to wear the dress. It was only Tyra’s  second or third show. She was new to the business, but walked like a pro….like she had been doing it for years!…….Hannah, who was in charge of back stage to make sure everything worked smoothly, [she was like a drill sergeant!], came to me before the show and told me Naomi SWITCHED her tunic with Tyra’s dress. She just went to the racks and put her tunic where Tyra’s dress was hanging, and replaced her tunic with Tyra’s dress!!!! I told Hannah to SWITCH them back!……Then….Naomi came to me and said she wanted to wear the dress!!! I knew she would have looked great in it, but it would have been expected that she would get the dress in the show. Tyra was young and fresh and still hadn’t been seen by many stores or even editors….I told Naomi the line up was already printed and on each chair. This was done so the editors and store buyers could follow the show by number of the outfit and the model wearing it…..They would circle the things they were interested in….It just made it easier. I explained to Naomi that I couldn’t make this change so late just before the show was to start, but she wasn’t giving up so easily….She said no one would care that the dress was in the wrong order, and on a different model….it was too distinct for anyone to get confused. I knew she was right, and under other circumstances I would have made the change….but…..I really wanted Tyra to wear the dress! Naomi finally went off in a huff, and I warned Hannah to make sure Naomi didn’t make any last minute switches!!!…..The show went on and finally Tyra came out all by herself in the dress…..The audience went WILD!!! All of the men were trying ti see if she was wearing anything under it because she did look totally nude……She was wearing a skin color thong and that was it….so she was almost naked!….Tyra strutted that stage like nobody’s business, and milked every second out of her presentation stopping on the stage and staring into the crowd defiantly……It was a MOMENT…..I picked the right model to wear the dress….The dress was highlighted on the cover of WWD, and in the NY Times. It became an ad for Bloomingdales and a full page editorial in Vogue. Many celebrities wanted to borrow the dress, but it was very delicate so we were very selective on who would get it. It really depended on the event they would be wearing it to, and how much exposure it would get………..Years later Tyra was interviewed and asked if she had a special runway moment out of all the shows she did….She mentioned wearing this dress in my show was her favorite. Word got back to me, and I made sure Tyra was sent a copy of the show with a hand written note from me……Her on that runway is something I will never forget!

……………………PERCISION….WORKMANSHIP…….are all key words when describing DESIGNER CLOTHES……….The IVORY CADET three piece suit is the perfect example  of what a designer suit should be……THIRTY ONE YEARS LATER….this suit is as relevant, as modern, and as current as it was the day I designed it.

………………For the AK Spring 1992 collection I did a series of sweater dresses, tops and even a bathing suit with a variety of multi strap backs…..Shown here are a DRESS, and a top, lower left….all made in Italy…… The knit had a large percentage of elastane blended with rayon so the knit fabric was heavier and HELD the wearer IN! The rayon gave a smooth comfortable feel to the knit. These dresses and tops were not for everyone!!!….However, they sold incredibly well!!  In those days designer collections were basically sold  in sizes 2 to 12 and anything larger was a special order. Stores that could meet the minimums could order the larger sizes if they wanted….The BLACK SUEDE WEDGE ANKLE STRAP worked perfectly with all of the strap pieces.

…………………………The COCOA and IVORY print was inspired by INDIAN WOOD BLOCK PATTERNS…..There was a slim pull-on pant, and a one button wrap skirt over the pant, which is typical of the way Indian women dress….. The top is the COCOA CREPE GEORGETTE with the sheer georgette overlay. Gail is wearing two leather cuffs with ivory saddle stitching and leather hoop earrings…..The platform wedges are made out of cocoa nubuck suede, which is a little sportier than suede……The Cocoa jacket from the previous post worked great over this outfit. I rolled the sleeves on the jacket to give it a more casual look.