TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/102389/10238900.010

Text File | 1992-09-23 | 5.4 KB | 106 lines

                                                                                BUSINESS, Page 70

High Style for the 9-to-5 Set


Donna Karan sells working women a look of their own

By Barbara Rudolph


    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 ago in one of the most successful
launches in fashion history. Says Joan Kaner, senior vice
president of the Neiman Marcus chain: "Donna's name is magic
right now."

    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 so that they flatter a
woman's hips even if she is not runway-thin.

    The 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 ($200).

    As a 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.

    Karan and Louis Dell'Olio, a friend and classmate from
Parsons, proved a formidable team at Anne Klein during their
ten-year tenure. In 1982, when Karan launched Anne Klein II, a
lower-priced line, she experienced for the first time the
creative rush of designing an entirely new collection. She was
restless but still afraid to leave the security of Anne Klein.
Finally, her boss at the company, Frank Mori, pushed her out on
her own. Recalls Mori: "It was like, `The bad news is you're
fired. And the good news is you have your own company.'"
Takihyo, the Japanese textile conglomerate that owned Anne
Klein, put up an initial $3 million to help launch Donna Karan
Co. The designer and Stephan Weiss, her second husband and
partner, got a 50% stake in the business.

    Now the company is going through a challenging transition
from a cozy, family-style operation to a more structured,
hierarchical organization. Says Karan: "The growth is
frightening. It truly is. My biggest dream is to allow this
business to grow and not lose the integrity of what we have."
Much of that task will fall to president Stephen Ruzow, a former
executive at the Warnaco apparel company. Ruzow, 46, hired five
months ago, is also attempting to smooth out production snags
that have sometimes led to uneven quality in Karan's garments,
which are mostly made in Manhattan and Hong Kong.

    Like most successful designers, Karan plans to diversify
into the lucrative accessory business. She already licenses her
name for lines of hosiery, eyeglasses, jewelry, shoes and furs.
The firm is planning to enter the enticing but highly
competitive fragrance market. At the same time, her clothes have
bright prospects overseas. Karan's lines, now sold in only one
exclusive London shop, Browns, will appear next March in two
leading London department stores, Harrods and Harvey Nichols.

    As she contemplates her sprawling empire, part of Karan
wants to pull back. The woman who says she designed her first
solo collection for herself and "a group of us girls" seems
unsure how she feels about becoming one of America's best-known
fashion labels. "I don't want everybody walking around in my
clothes. It's a terrible thing to say," Karan muses. But the
Karan look is already nearly ubiquitous. One of her devotees is
Candice Bergen, whose TV character Murphy Brown seems to have
a Karan outfit for every occasion.