Word: karan
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...Karan proved her talent most assuredly in her spring womenswear collection, which she showed to the press last month. "I loved it," says Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour. Virtually all the top spring collections are presenting a decidedly new look -- soft, fluid and romantic -- but Karan and Lauren showed the most imaginative interpretation of the change. Among the strong sellers in Karan's line: the poet's blouse, a white viscose creation with flared cuffs ($450); navy bell-bottom pants ($650); and an elongated wool crepe vest...
...Karan seems right at home in the rough, insular world of Seventh Avenue, it may be because she was born into it. Her father Gabby Faske, who died when Donna was three, was a tailor. Her mother Helen worked as a sales representative and showroom model. Known in the family as "the Queen," Karan's mother was an imperiously demanding woman. Does Karan's childhood explain her drive? After 18 years of psychoanalysis, Karan has either found the answer or stopped asking the question. "I think I was born this way," she says. "I never feel I've done...
After studying at New York City's Parsons School of Design, Karan went to work at 19 for Anne Klein, another lady who was notoriously hard to please. "Donna idolized Annie, and she was afraid of her," recalls Burt Wayne, head of the Anne Klein design studio and a good friend of both women. Wayne recalls meeting Karan for the first time when he visited Klein at her apartment. Donna was standing on the terrace with Klein, showing her various fabrics. "Her hair was blowing, the fabrics were flying. You could instantly see Donna's enthusiasm -- and her tenacity." When...
...Anne Klein, Karan worked with her co-designer, Louis dell'Olio, to protect the legacy of the label while moving the business forward. In 1983 they launched Anne Klein II, a successful line of clothes for working women. But, ever restless, Karan was eager to assert her creative identity. Executives at Takiyho, the Japanese conglomerate that owned a majority stake in Anne Klein, urged her to start her own label, but she was uncertain. So in 1984 Takiyho fired her, simultaneously agreeing to back her new company...
...months later, Karan mounted her first show. The eternally jaded fashion crowd gave her a standing ovation, whistling, wildly shouting her name. A month after that, she broke records at a special sale for customers of Bergdorf Goodman, the premier U.S. fashion retailer. Dawn Mello, then Bergdorf's president, recalls the scene when the sale ended: "Donna burst into tears and sat on the floor, weeping, amazed at what she had done...