Donna Karan: New York by Ingrid Sischy Universe of Fashion, 1998 80 Pages, $18.95 W: The Designing Life edited by Lois Perschetz Clarkson N. Potter, 1987 .Reviewed by Damion Matthews"I wouldn't put my label on something just to generate more business." -- Donna Karan, 1983. "I will tell you right now I would not put my name on the back of jeans. I'd put Anne Klein's name, but I would never put my own. I don't want to walk down the street and see my name there. My name is private." -- Donna Karan, 1984. "Karan today sits at the head of one of the most ballyhooed and eagerly anticipated new lines to come down Seventh Avenue in ages -- Donna Karan New York." -- "Women's Wear Daily", 1985. |
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other reviews: DV
by Diane Vreeland "Never let them see you sweat." That was the advice Donna Karan gave to millions of TV viewers in a 1985 commercial for Dry Idea deodorant. She later told a reporter that she regretted taking the job but that she needed the money at the time. I thought the commercial was wonderful. The image of the designer dressed, as I remember, in cashmere or wool, probably in black, with a shawl luxuriously draped around her was something that left a huge impact on my young mind (I was 11.) It was around that time that I became obsessed with fashion and Donna Karan. In the late '80s and early '90s I collected anything and everything related to Karan: articles, interviews, videos, pictures, press releases. I would urge my mother to buy her clothes. I would attend her trunk shows. I would meet her twice at I. Magnin in San Francisco and write to her on several occasions. It is because of my long, deep familiarity with her collections and career that I am disappointed by "Donna Karan: New York" (Universe of Fashion), an insubstantial little book that does no justice whatsoever to the designer's influential and impressive body of work. Looking through "Donna Karan" I was stunned by the omission of many noteworthy images, photos which should have been included to give an accurate overview of Karan's entire career. There are several splendid photos of her most recent collections, but very few of anything pre-IPO. It's as if she didn't exist until her company went public. Donna Karan has been in business as a designer for over 25 years. Certainly anyone interested in her work would be curious to see what she was doing in the '70s and '80s, as well as the '90s. For instance, her first collection for Anne Klein in 1974 was described at the time as "fantastic", "absolute perfection in sportswear", with "every piece... like a jewel." Wouldn't you like to see for yourself why the collection received such praise? You won't see it in this book. (If you're curious, check out W: The Designing Life, edited by Lois Perschetz.) Halston often remarked that a designer is only as good as the people he dressed. But again, flipping through Donna Karan I note the absence of images of several of the famous women Karan has dressed. Where is Liza Minnelli in her "cold shoulder" bodydress, one of Karan's most copied looks? Where are Candice Bergen and Diane Sawyer in their power suits? Cybil Shepherd in her buttery "Moonlighting" look? The women who wore Karan's designs in the late '80s and early '90s represented a sort of cultural movement, that is, a cult that becomes a culture. In what is by far the finest analysis of Karan's work to date, Rebecca Mead writes in a 1996 profile for "New York" that "The company fostered a kind of cult of Donna among consumers -- centering upon Karan's needs, Karan's desires, and Karan's overdetermined body, a stand-in for every woman's sense of her flawed self." Of the many marketing tools Karan has made use of in creating her strong customer base over the years perhaps the most important has been the distribution of video tapes of her shows to stores. A customer could take the video home or watch it in the store and order her favorite looks in a snap. The fashion show video tapes were important for three reasons: besides the convenience, they gave the customer a sense of couture-like intimacy in her shopping, as well as role models of how to present themselves. Iman and Dalma were queens of the runway at the time women became addicted to Donna Karan. Again, images of these women at the height of their careers in the late '80s aren't included in this book, yet Iman and Dalma were as important to Karan's success as the bodysuit. They were not the blank, anorexic, drug using 16 year old girls of today's runway. They were women. They had a forceful, imperious manner, yet they purred, they seduced. Dressed in Donna Karan's sensual suits they appeared sophisticated, strong, wealthy. They didn't use drugs, they were the drug. They hooked women all over America into becoming like them, and although Karan's customer might never look like Iman or Dalma, in Karan's clothes she could have the same kind of confidence about herself. Karan's runway shows were a lesson to women on how to look and feel confident in a world previously only open to men, the world of business. Ironically, it's the world of business which seems to have brought a permanent end to the kind of work that made Karan so popular. Since taking her act to Wall Street, Karan's creative concern has no longer been for power within a social context, but spiritual power. The conflict which seems to have been motivating her for the last few years is whether something like that can really be shown on a runway. On that subject I have no comment. But of course, neither does "Donna Karan". "Donna Karan" and "W: The Designing Life" can both be purchased online from Amazon.com through the Look On-Line's fashion bookstore: "Donna Karan: New York" and "W: The Designing Life" |