Donna Karan ‘made fashion an expression of a way of life’
Designer’s departure leaves a legacy of creativity and caring
Donna Karan stepped down from her namesake company last week after more than 30 years in business. In that time she became one of the most famous designers in the U.S., started an enormously successful bridge line, sold her company to LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton and was an icon for working women.
Her sexy, monochromatic outfits were part of the story, but so was Karan’s work in philanthropy and her delightfully kooky, new-ge persona. That she was not to the manner born (she still has a bit of a Queens drawl and appears to be in a constant state of near-disarray, like someone who is always fumbling about for her keys, her wallet, her phone) only added to her persona. Her idea of fashion was almost anti-elitist.
“She made fashion an expression of a way of life,” said magazine editor and writer Ingrid Sischy, a longtime friend of Karan’s. “A New York story as full of passion as anything Edith Wharton might have written a century ago, except this one took place on Seventh Avenue.”
Designer Narciso Rodriguez studied under Karan when she was the head of Anne Klein. “She could take a piece of fabric and wrap it around herself and turn it into an entire collection,” he recalled.
“She was a real designer that way, not a marketing manager. And she did something very few designers ever do, which is change the way women dressed.”
Karan was born in Forest Hills, Queens, and went to school at the Parsons School of Design. Then it was off to work at Anne Klein, where she served, at first, as Klein’s assistant.
In 1973, Karan travelled to France for the Battle of Versailles, where five U.S. designers — Oscar de la Renta, Stephen Burrows, Halston, Bill Blass and Anne Klein — competed against a team including Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Hubert de Givenchy and Christian Dior in an attempt to raise money for the palace.
“Anne Klein was the only woman,” said Bethann Hardison, veteran modelling agent. “It was tough. At that time, she probably knew she had cancer. And Donna was her assistant. She was just a nice Jewish girl, simple, not memorable.”
After Klein’s death, Karan took over, and she stayed on until she was fired in 1984. Rather than retreat or go work for someone else, Karan began her own brand.
“The first things I bought were navy blue,” said actress Bernadette Peters. “It was the bodysuit and the wrap skirt and all the jewelry that went with it. All the purses that went with it. All the shoes. They felt so good.”
“Donna changed the game because she brought femininity to a powerful woman,’” said stylist Lori Goldstein. “You could still be powerful and an executive and dress like a woman, and that’s what I think will be her legacy.”
“You felt sexy and powerful, and her clothes wore well in life,” Peters said. “Really well.”
In 1989, Karan started her DKNY brand and that, too, became a giant hit. LVMH came calling to buy the brand in 2001 for $243 million.
Eventually, DKNY contributed more to her corporate bosses’ bottom line than the main collection, which may have made Karan less necessary to her bosses. She was, in a way, a victim of her own success. (Karan turned down repeated requests for an interview.)
“I can’t really talk to all that,” said Linda Fargo, f ashion director of Bergdorf Goodman, which continued to carry Donna Karan through this season. “I can say her business is steady. They’ve been incredible partners.”
In 2001, her husband, Stephan Weiss, died of cancer, and Karan rebounded by becoming a prominent philanthropist and fundraiser for a variety of causes. All of this she did in her inimitably Donna Karan-esque way, talking at gala benefits about the importance of uniting Western medicine and Eastern holistic approaches like yoga, meditation, herbs.
She started her Urban Zen Foundation, which pays artisans around the world to create things that can be snapped up by monied consumers.
“She was one of the first people who called the CFDA and said, ‘What are we doing for Haiti?” said Steven Kolb, chief executive officer of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. “’What are we doing for Hurricane Sandy?’ ‘What are we doing for Japan?’ That was Urban Zen from the beginning, making a connection between her creativity and her caring.”
As Kolb saw it, the surprise was not that she left her company. Rather, it was that she lasted as long as she did. “You think about other situations that don’t go that long,” he said. “She lasted longer than most.”