Work won’t wait

DONNA Karan had to keep working tirelessly to make it as a fashion designer even during the highs and lows of her early career. Discussing her new memoir, “My Journey,” at the Central Park Conservancy’s Women’s Committee’s Fall Luncheon, Karan remembered receiving a call that she needed to be back at work immediately after giving birth to her daughter, Gabby, in 1974. She told the doctor, “Don’t worry about the stitches, I have a sample room downstairs. They can take care of it.” And when her boss at the time, Anne Klein, passed away from cancer just days later: “That was the shock of my life,” Karan said. “People did not discuss disease in those days . . . The funeral was the next day, and the next day I had to open a collection.” This year, Karan stepped down from Donna Karan International, which was bought by LVMH in 2001. Karan said of the move in June, “I’m married to my company. I’ll be married to my company whether I’m there or not there.”