Fashion force for working women
In the mid-1970s, as the Twiggy era of skimpy hot pants and miniskirts was winding down, Carole Little was gearing up to make her mark in the world of retail fashion.
Her first success was a simple, loosefitting silk blouse with two patch pockets and epaulettes, styled after an oversize man’s shirt she had bought in Paris and loved to wear. It had a sophisticated ease, looked great with jeans or a dyed-tomatch skirt, and was moderately priced.
“That epitomized the look I wanted,” Little recalled in a 1987 interview with United Press International. And it launched Little’s company as a force for working women who wanted a stylish but affordable look.
Little, whose creative vision helped turn her eponymous brand into a favourite of career women, died Sept. 19 at her home in San Diego. She was 80 and had cancer, said her daughter, Jennifer.
With Leonard Rabinowitz, her business partner and husband, Little started California Fashion Industries Inc. in downtown Los Angeles in 1974.
By1979, the company had $30 million in sales. By the early 1990s, Rabinowitz said, the volume reached $350 million.
Their trip to Paris brought a pivotal insight. Little and Rabinowitz noticed shop girls wearing expensive-looking clothes and wondered how they could afford them. Then the couple observed that the women might wear the same shirt the next day, but pair it with a skirt instead of trousers. Compared with American women’s wardrobes, the Parisian women’s “were smaller but better,” Rabinowitz said in an interview Friday. “We thought we’d like to bring that (concept) back to the States . . . at an affordable price. That was the niche we decided to be in, and it was a hit.” They launched the company with $20,000 borrowed from his family.
After the silk separates, Little found mass appeal with prints and a colour palette that was flattering to a wide range of women.
Major department stores embraced her designs, which were described as ideal for “women intent on scaling the corporate ladder.” Later, garment-industry analysts would include Carole Little among the firms that led a renaissance in the Los Angeles apparel industry in the 1970s and ’80s.
Before long, Little was making gowns for presenters at the Oscars and other public figures. She often gathered feedback covertly, eavesdropping on women browsing racks of her clothes in stores. When she returned to the office, she shared their comments.
The daughter of a Sears shoe executive, Little was born in Chicago on Sept. 27, 1934, and moved with her family to Los Angeles as a child. She majored in English at the University of California, Los Angeles, and then studied fashion design at Los Angeles Trade Technical College.
Her first job in the apparel business was as a secretary for a Los Angeles swimsuit maker. Later, she worked for a large manufacturer where she designed trendy wear, including hot pants. The division manager was Rabinowitz.
In 2002, Cherokee Inc. bought the Carole Little label. She and Rabinowitz went on to form a design studio. Little retired in 2013. She was married to Rabinowitz for 22 years before they divorced in the late 1990s. Besides her daughter, she is survived by two grandchildren.