Donna Karan

Donna Karan ( born October 2, 1948 in Forest Hills (New York City ), born Donna Ivy Faske ) is an internationally renowned U.S. fashion designer and businesswoman.

From the early 1980s, influenced Karan the clothing style of urban women by a system consisting of different basic garments - created with versatile combination possibilities for business and evening wear - which they originally called " Seven Easy Pieces " and later " Essentials" called. Karan propagated black as the base color and designed fashion which flattered also the body of the average woman. She was also writes that the invention of the " Creeper" ( bodysuit ) of elastic jersey fabric as base garment for everyday wardrobe.

The fashion brand Donna Karan New York, founded in New York by Karan 1985 is under Karan's influence as a high-priced women's collection - next to the bridge line DKNY DKNY JEANS brand and the license for men and women - until now.

Career

Education and designer career

Donna Karan was born Donna Ivy Faske as in a working in the fashion industry family and grew up in Woodmere, Long Iceland. The father, Gabby Faske, was tailor and traded with haberdashery, the mother, Helen, worked as a showroom model. Karan began training at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan, but did not complete it, but became for a summer part-time job at a ladies fashion label Anne Klein for " Assistant Designer". In 1971, she was " Associate Designer". They remained until 1984 in the company where they, together with her ​​colleague Louis Dell'Olio took over the management in 1974 after the death of company founder Anne Klein.

Her first husband, Mark Karan, she married in 1970 and was with him in 1974 the daughter of Gabrielle, Gabby called.

By the company to the consolidated

After her divorce in 1982 Karan married again, the sculptor Stephan Weiss, with whom she had a very close relationship and " soul mate ". Together with him and the Japanese owner of Anne Klein, Takiyho, Inc., made in 1984 his own and founded in 1985, the fashion label Donna Karan New York. The first collection, including accessories and jewelry, under her name she introduced in the same year and was then by the Council of Fashion Designers of America to the ' Designer of the Year ' chosen. Karan's fashion was characterized by the fact that she designed clothes that they would wear themselves that they were portable for something fuller ladies, that all parts of the collections were combined with each other, suitable as a business outfit and were made of high quality materials. Their " Seven Easy Pieces " (engl.: " seven translucent parts "), which formed a modular system for the transition from day to evening wear and in every woman's wardrobe should hang Karan, at that time included a bodysuit, a blouse, a jacket, a coat, a skirt, a pair of pants and "something fancy" ( dt: something fancy ). Karan's favorite fashion color was black, which they, however, always accented with bright colors. In order to make their fashion for the wearer comfortable, they grabbed you back to the material elastane. Had to resort to a time in the career-oriented women on men's business clothing in small sizes, met Karan's fashion collection in an extremely successful way the nerve of her clients.

Expansion

In 1989, Karan after the immense success of her main line of the less high-priced label DKNY (acronym for: Donna Karan New York) as a bridge line before, which had younger customers as a target group. Here her daughter Gabby should have served as inspiration for their everyday life in the elegant Donna Karan New York collection was to find little suitable. For the European market DKNY was positioned as a result of a genuine second-line. At the same time launched the Karan Donna Karan Eyewear eyewear collection. In 1990, the DKNY line was JEANS by DKNY, a denim -based streetwear collection in the lower price segment complements. Over time, and there were a licensing nor the secondary lines DKNY Active (sports mode), DKNY Underwear ( Underwear), DKNY Kids ( Children's Clothing ) and DKNY JEANS Juniors (Youth Fashion ), which were later discontinued but partly.

1992 your company Donna Karan Beauty, for which in 1997 the licenses of Estée Lauder should be bought up, brought the perfume Donna Karan New York out, was responsible for its creation, including the shape of the bottle, her husband Stephan Weiss, the cosmetics of the division of headed the company and at the same time acted alongside Karan as Co-CEO. In the following years, numerous fragrances for men, launches, some of which, however, were subsequently reinstated and brought back onto the market until 2008.

1992 launched Karan Donna Karan New York and Menswear ( menswear ), Donna Karan Shoes (Shoes) and Donna Karan Intimates ( Lingerie ). It was the same year by CFDA for ' Menswear Designer of the Year ' chosen.

In 1993, the men's bridge collection for DKNY Men's and children's clothing at DKNY Kids and the following year the first DKNY flagship store in the world, and in 1996 the first collection boutique was opened in London. Karan also presented Donna Karan Essentials, newly launched basic or classic bestseller from previous collections. 1995 Karan designed the costumes for Martha Graham's choreography Snow on the Mesa. Her husband Stephen retired from the fashion industry, to devote himself to sculpture. He was already sick at this time of lung cancer. 1996 product lines Signature Donna Karan New York ( Ready- to-wear line for men and women ), D by DKNY ( higher-priced version of the DKNY Ladies line), Donna Karan Home Accessories were (later Donna Karan Home Collection ) on the market brought. The company went public in the same year on the stock market, but that does not bring the desired success. In 1997, Donna Karan also moved from the operating business back, but remained on the board and supervised more than the designer collections. In the same year, opened in April the Donna Karan store in the Quartier 206 on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin, which was however closed in 2001. Only in 1999 and 2001 was followed by the opening of DKNY stores in Manhattan and also 2001 collection boutique. 2000 came the DKNY JEANS Juniors collection for young people joined the portfolio.

LVMH

2001 sold Karan their company to the luxury group LVMH ( Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton ) for a total of 643 million dollars. Her husband died in the same year of his illness and Donna Karan withdrew a while. From the former studio of Stephan Weiss in Manhattan Karan made ​​after his death, a showroom and founded her Urban Zen Foundation initiative, a foundation that is also actively involved in charitable in the ' Yoga for cancer '. Today Karan no longer self- designed collections, but also ensures a supervisor to ensure that they get the typical " Donna Karan " style. At the end of Donna Karan and DKNY fashion shows she appears on the catwalk today. LVMH presented after the acquisition, the high-priced men's collections ( Collection and Signature) a - Plans, menswear, alongside DKNY Men and DKNY JEANS for men, resume were later not realized - and also the Signature Ladies line was discontinued. Opened in 2005, the company's own online store.

Boutiques

In July 2006, there were 16 world Donna Karan New York DKNY stores and 47 stores. There are also numerous world DKNY JEANS stores and proprietary outlet stores.

Collections

Current Collections:

• Donna Karan New York ( Collection) - Black Label, Couture Fashion for Women ( since 1985) and also formerly Men ( 1992-2002 ) in the top price segment
• DKNY - bridge collection for women (since 1989) and Men ( since 1993), and D by DKNY (never ), DKNY Active ( set ), Underwear ( since 1999) and DKNY Kids ( since 1993) in the medium price segment
• DKNY JEANS - Denim -based collection for men and women in the upper low-price segment (since 1990) including DKNY JEANS Juniors (since 2000)
• Donna Karan Home Collection - Bedding, towels, pillows, decorative curtains, etc. (since 2001)

Former Collections:

• Donna Karan New York Essentials - reissued classics from past collections for women ( 1993-1996 )
• Donna Karan New York Signature - Gold Label, succession collection the Essentials line, high-priced luxury fashion for men and women ( 1996-2004 )

There are also accessories and footwear collections for the main collection. The fact that for the American market Liz Claiborne JEANS DKNY and DKNY to the license Menswear holds and to Europe and Asia from 2002, the Italian fashion manufacturer SINV and then various other fashion producers, resulted in qualitative differences of the respective brands.

Awards

• Coty American Fashion Critics Award - 1977, 1981, 1984 ( with entry into the Coty Hall of Fame Award ), 1985
• Fashion Footwear Association of New York Award - 1988
• Council of Fashion Designers of America - 1985 ( Special Award ), 1986 ( Special Award ), 1987 ( Special Award ), 1990 ( women's fashion ), 1992 ( men's fashion ), 2004 ( Lifetime )
• Woolmark Award - 1992
• Honorary Degree, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Parsons School of Design - 1987

Publications

Donna Karan, Donna Karan, New York, ISBN 3-88814-643-7