Word: karan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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America's retailers have precious little to cheer about these days. Many of the best-known U.S. department-store chains are up for sale. Garment sales have been stagnant, and profits are squeezed. But then there is Donna Karan, a women's-clothing designer whose creations send department-store executives into fits of giddy optimism. The Queen of Seventh Avenue, as the fashion press calls her, Karan is chief executive officer and head designer of a five-year- old company that expects to rake in $115 million in revenues this year. Her sportswear line arrived in stores eight months...
...Karan, 41, has earned a reputation as the sartorial savior of the modern working woman who is fed up with floppy bow ties and sexless designs. Karan's clothes are comfortable and practical, stylish and feminine. Among her trademarks: one-piece silk bodysuits, easy-fitting jackets, wrap skirts. Fashion doyen John Fairchild, publisher of Women's Wear Daily, lauds Karan as the most important American designer. Says he: "Donna understands a woman's body the way Coco Chanel did." A size 12 herself, Karan boasts the rare and eternally marketable talent of cutting a skirt or a pair of pants...
...designer's main collection, called Donna Karan New York, is in demand among an elite crowd that seldom blinks at a $1,100 price tag for a cashmere blazer or $510 for a high-neck silk blouse. But it is Karan's more congenially priced DKNY wardrobe that has struck a popular chord. Among its current best sellers: plaid wool jackets ($395), denim jeans ($85) and merino-wool cardigans...
...hardworking woman in what is still a male-dominated star system, Karan is instantly simpatico to many of her customers. When she makes appearances at department stores, Karan acts like a wise older sister dispensing fashion tips and helping customers assemble her clothes into outfits. Says Karan, as she twirls her oversize black eyeglasses: "I am accessible. I see myself as a person who stays up all night and worries about her daughter ((Gaby, 15)) and her husband, and would like to get the carpeting ordered...
...When Karan was growing up, the rag trade was a family tradition. Her father, who died when she was 3, was a custom tailor. Her mother worked as a showroom model and saleswoman. Her stepfather sold women's apparel. Karan studied at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan, then worked as an assistant to the legendary Anne Klein. When Klein died in 1974, Karan was named her successor. At that moment she was the 26-year-old mother of a week-old baby...