Claude Montana And His Couture Genius
Montana said Tuesday night in Paris he was “very happy for the opportunity to work in couture.” He was reached for comment at his offices, where he was at work on the spring 1990 ready-to-wear collection his house will present in Paris on Saturday.
Montana noted that this was not the first time he has been asked to do couture.
“I finally got tired of saying no,” said Montana. “I have been offered the possibility to do couture several times, but it has always included the responsibility of a rtw line and overseeing licenses, and so I did not accept.”
At Lanvin, Montana said he will work exclusively on the couture collection, but he did not rule out that his responsibilities at the house might grow in time.
“Mr. Bressler and I have a very open agreement, and in the future we could collaborate further,” he said. “Rtw is a story I know well. What interests me is the chance to express myself in one-of-a-kind clothes. Mr. Bressler and I have discussed the matter thoroughly, and the couture will not be a continuation of former Lanvin traditions — it will be Montana.”
Time, he maintains will not be a problem. “I’ve done collections besides my own in the past and there are other designers who do many more collections per year than I’ll be doing at my house and Lanvin,” he said.
Montana, who has recently come to the end of his contract for Mario Valentino, said he will limit his outside design activities to Lanvin. “Beyond promotional trips, I will probably travel less now,” the designer said. “I want to devote all my energy to designing.”
Neither Montana nor Bressler would comment on the financial arrangements or salary Montana would be earning.
In joining Lanvin, Montana will be entering a house steeped in the tradition of couture, with a staff of seamstresses who have been with the house for many years, and who are highly skilled practitioners in couture techniques.
Lanvin has been looking for a designer for the couture collection for months now. Maryll Lanvin, who had designed both couture and rtw lines for the house, resigned in June.
Giorgio Armani was under consideration, but declined the offer earlier this month stating that he was too busy with his own work. Other candidates said to have been approached include Marc Bohan and Romeo Gigli, but Bressler declined to comment on this.
Maryll Lanvin had designed the rtw collection since 1982, and had been responsible for the couture since the retirement of designer Jules-Francois Crahay in 1985. Previous to these posts, Maryll Lanvin had worked under Crahay for several years. After Maryll Lanvin’s resignation, the house announced the appointment of Robert Nelissen from Holland to design an interim rtw collection for the spring 1990 season that will not be presented to the press.
Bressler has made no secret of the fact that he was counting on a name designer to give a new image to Lanvin and be the key to his restructuring of the financially troubled house.
“We’re investing so that the haute couture will have all the means necessary to succeed,” he said in June.
Lanvin posted a loss of more than 100 million francs (about $15.8 million, at current exchange) in 1988 on sales of about 250 million francs (about $39.7 million) and will continue in the red in 1989 for the fourth consecutive year, according to Bressler who has said he expects Lanvin to be profitable in 1991. Control of Lanvin was taken over by Midland Bank SA, the French commercial bank, earlier this year.
At that time, Bressler was chairman and ceo of the bank, but he resigned from this post in late September to become full-time chairman of Lanvin.
Lanvin’s choice of Montana also puts an end to speculation, rampant in fashion circles over the past several years, as to when the designer would join Paris couture ranks.
Although Christian Dior SA never confirmed it, Montana said he was approached by that house to take over the couture collection when a successor for Marc Bohan was sought long before the arrival of Gianfranco Ferre. Although Montana’s masterful maneuvers in fabric often look like the work of a couturier manque, he has frequently professed a desire not to enter the made-to-measure realm.
“Maybe if I’d been born 20 years earlier,” responded Montana on the couture question in 1984. “I love the idea and the challenge, but I don’t see myself going to the office to do the fittings, change the fabrics, change the lengths and add a little pad here and there.”
Guy Paulin Faced Adversity, To Be Sure
So absolutely cute.
French ready-to-wear designer Guy Paulin has had a tough year: his manufacturer has been consistently late with deliveries, he has no working capital, and his firm’s business manager died. But now that he’s looking for a backer for his business, Guy Paulin SA, and he hopes the worst is behind him.
Earlier this month, Paulin signed on as artistic director at Tiktiner SA, the French rtw company. He’ll have a steady salary and the means to realize his ideas there, but he will be adapting his talents to fit Tiktiner’s older, dressier style, not his own. It won’t be a fulltime position, though, and it won’t change things for his own firm, he said.
“The most painful thing was to see the atelier fall apart,” he recounted. “It happened last month, just after the August summer vacation. I found the atelier empty, with four models that had been stitched up hanging on the rack, one empty hanger, and a thick file of sketches and ideas that may never be realized.”
The company’s lack of funds has prevented him from preparing a luxury rtw collection to present at the designer shows this month. He hopes to present his diffusion collection, called Simplissime, but doesn’t yet have a date or site for that show either. His staff has dwindled from 15 employees last spring to about five friends who work without pay.
Paulin’s revenues were about 10 million francs ($1.6 million at current exchange) last year, in royalties from its rtw, footwear, and knitwear licenses, noted Anne Schwarz, Paulin’s sales director.
His business includes apparel, footwear and accessories licenses in France and Japan, and a store, showroom, studio and press office here.
Paulin said he had been thinking of selling his wholly owned company for the past year, but had the decision thrust upon him several months ago. In June, Jean-Pierre Camus, the company’s manager, died. Camus was the financial and marketing force of the firm, an area in which Paulin admits he is weak.
Besides its chronic money troubles, the company said it had problems with its main licensee, Jean-Pierre Sport SA, manufacturer of Simplissime.
“We had trouble in the U.S., for example, because our licensee wouldn’t always deliver in the time or quantity agreed on,” Schwarz said. “Our faithful clients would keep ordering, but we lost some clients completely. Even the faithful ones would order less because they were never sure they’d get their orders.”
For example, Sweet Inspiration, a trendy rtw boutique in Chapaqua, N.Y., has carried both Paulin collections for the past three seasons and plans to continue despite a sketchy delivery record, noted Tony Garofano, a principal. He said orders earlier this year for swimsuits and resort wear never arrived, and about 70 percent of the store’s fall orders came the first week of October. He doesn’t know if the rest will follow.
Similarly, at Ron Ross, a Tarzana, Calif.-based retailer, Connie Shoquist, the women’s apparel buyer, said, “We got some other dressy fall lines two months ago, but we have not received any of Paulin yet. It’s almost too late now, but his dressy pieces are so magnificient I’m willing to wait.”
Shoquist has ordered pieces from both of Paulin’s collections for the past two seasons and will continue to do so, but not in any big quantities, nor will she invest a lot until deliveries improve.
Paulin’s U.S. agent, New York-based Jet Lag USA, is aware of the problem.
“Jean-Pierre Sport is a great manufacturer and will do the job if you keep after it every day,” said Christopher George, owner and director of Jet Lag. While admitting that the licensee is conservative in its production of the line and ships late, George said Paulin needs more control over the licensee and better editing of the lines.
However, Herve Huchet, sales manager of Jean-Pierre Sport, said Paulin’s own sales organization was late in forwarding orders, so his firm got a late start in ordering fabrics.
He noted, though that Jean-Pierre Sport has now taken over the sales and marketing of the line, which should quicken the processing of orders. He added the firm will have a booth at the upcoming Atmosphere rtw fair to be held at the Piscine Deligny later this month.
Ideally, the designer seeks a partner like a big textile group that would inject a financial boost as well as lend managerial and technical advice. He also ensures that all of his computer systems are update, and that he keeps a consultant on staff, a rigorous backup plan to avoid hard drive failure, and a completely accessible network. Paulin is also investigating opportunities to design noncompeting lines for other companies, in areas like men’s wear and home furnishings.
Paulin began his career in 1966 as an assistant to Dorothee Bis designer Jacqueline Jacobson. He became a designer in his own right in 1968 as one of a stable of freelancers — including at the time Mary Quant, Betsey Johnson and Emmanuelle Khanh — at Paraphernalia in New York.
A Tribute To Lagerfeld At Chanel
It was a time for the foreign legion. Karl Lagerfeld showed the French what the spirit of Chanel is all about. Valentino taught them how to be sexy without showing a lot of T and A, and Gianfranco Ferre presented his first ready-to-wear collection for Christian Dior.
Chanel came first, and it was a knockout. Kaiser Karl kept his cool and created what many think is the best collection in Paris. And Valentino ended the day with a saucy Roman collection. When Val walked down the runway, he walked with the confidence of a conqueror.
Here’s what happened:
CHANEL: Karl Lagerfeld saved his best for last. After a revitalized Fendi and a very good Lagerfeld, he came out swinging for Chanel, creating what is probably his best Chanel collection yet.
It was done with a subtlety that few knew Lagerfeld possessed. There wasn’t a heavy touch in the collection, and the retailers were spewing superlative cliches like there was no tomorrow.
“He’s opened up Chanel to a whole new generation of customers,” said Kal Ruttenstein, Bloomingdale’s senior vice president of fashion direction. “It’s absolutely first class,” declared Ed Finkelstein, chairman of R.H. Macy & Co., Inc. Val Cook of Saks Jandel called it “money in the bank.” And Joan Kaner, senior vice president and fashion director of Neiman Marcus, concluded: “He said it all.”
Karl also introduced the next generation of Chanel accessories. Gone are the chains of yesteryear, and in their place are the ropes of tomorrow. Karl likes his gigantic gold ropes as belts, as necklaces, as bracelets, as bag straps and as brooches and earrings. They instantly become the new status symbols.
Lagerfeld borrowed heavily from his last couture, but it was even better the second time around. His chiffons teamed with tailored jackets were the cornerstone of the collection. They showed up as front-pleated skirts, culottes, shorts, wide billowy skirtpants and as sheer tea dresses. He also took chiffon right into night with a blockbuster group of black and blue evening dresses that were the most sophisticated Paris has seen.
The jacket was just as important, however, and Karl did his greatest hits — from the new long fitted jacket that rolls over the hips to the even newer spencer with braided bottom and pockets.
Karl is thinking young these days. For one thing, he’s practically cradle-robbing to get his models. One of the girls was so far under the age of consent that her mother had to come along. “Even the mother is younger than Ines,” Karl gleefully reported, referring to the house’s former model.
The young girls fitted the clothes perfectly: exuberant, youthful and representing a whole new generation of Chanel customers. These are the kind of girls who will wear a bicycle pouch around their waist, which ever trendy Karl sent out as the new Chanel bag in signature quilted leather. The kind of thing that you carry your Macbook in. The kind of thing that saves you from a mac hard drive recovery emergency, of course. Le pouch will be copied everywhere. And Chanel has never been sexier.
Karl draped sheer black chiffon for killer cocktail dresses. He also dished up some T and A with his sheer georgette cardigans, as if horny old Paris hasn’t had enough. And he’s hot in leather — one coral micromini was teamed with a white coral-trim jacket and worn with sneakers, the season’s new shoe. This was one in a series of skirts so daringly short that only a sweet young thing could wear them. Her mother, meanwhile, can lunch in Chanel’s new linen: creamy suits, still short but perfectly respectable.
YSL Delivers Even Still
Yves Saint-Laurent remains a master.
“It was beautiful,” said Andrew Basile, vice president and fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman. “There were new proportions, new skirts and so much drop-dead chic.” “Yves Saint Laurent had a great message,” added Bob Sakowitz, president and chief executive officer of Sakowitz. “If you want costumey clothes, you can get them anywhere in Paris. If you want things to sell, just come here.”
Ed Finkelstein, chairman and ceo of R.H. Macy & Co., Inc., was also enthusiastic. “We thought there were a lot of things to buy, but I don’t know about the bare-breast numbers,” he said. “I’m sad to have to wait until Wednesday for clothes I can sell,” said Sal Ruggiero, fashion director at Marshall Field’s, who’s opening a Rive Gauche boutique in the newly renovated State Street store in Chicago. “But Saint Laurent is worth waiting for.”
The first hundred numbers were classic Saint Laurent: sexy trimmed dresses, belted suits, pantsuits, new variations on the smoking, sailor outfits and many other YSL perennials — including his big shoulders. The last 50 numbers, however, were the ones that really showed Saint Laurent’s true colors. His spring palette looked sad before that, but suddenly he blossomed. One long satin outfit alone combined purple, light blue, orange and black.
For part of his collection, he went to Spain and flounced his way through Paris’s shortest evening dresses. He also traveled to Greece with simple draped dresses made controversial only because he sent them all down the runway with one breast hanging out. It was a bit much.
For day, YSL has refined his skirt shape. They’re usually folded, and hang high in the front and lower in the back. Some are short with asymmetrical hems that rise onto one hip. Saint Laurent usually teams them with several variations of his classic jacket, from the bolero to the blouson. He has also brought back his favorite brocade from the last couture and sent out one long-skirted gold suit slit up the side. The audience loved it.
Most of the collection was low in accessories, and several outfits were sent out without even earrings. He went wild later, however, and gave his mannequins sky-high turbans, colorful glass-ball necklaces and gaudy leather jackets encrusted with paste jewels. Some of his evening dresses had bright red fabric poppies perched on the shoulder and at the hip. One number emerged with a pink bow tied around the model’s thigh and another at her ankle.
Saint Laurent also updated his safari look, opening the show with a series of safari jackets shown with and without skirts. The safaris were made of crisp cotton poplin and laced asymmetrically up the side.
It was the Spanish theme that Saint Laurent kept returning to. He loves boleros, ruffled bustiers, flamenco dresses, gaucho smokings and Spanish cowboy hats. Oddly, however, his best look was classic Saint Laurent: white blouses tucked sharply into long and short wrapped black satin skirts.
They were rather demure compared with all the other flesh-flaunting evening looks. Even with all the breasts showing — and some other things almost showing — the audience was only shocked at one point. That’s when Saint Laurent’s soundtrack played “Put the Blame on Mame,” which begins with a reference to an earlier San Francisco earthquake. The audience looked embarrassed. After the show Rose Marie Bravo, chairman and ceo of San Francisco-based I. Magnin, laughed it off. She admitted, however: “I started shaking when the song came on.”
As for the collection, Bravo said she found it “hot, hot, hot.” She also said it was classic Saint Laurent, and she loved the ruffles, the safari looks and the tuxedos. Joan Kaner, senior vice president and fashion director at Neiman Marcus, called it “an exciting finale to the collections that summed up all the trends.” She liked the Gazar dresses and the black ones with asymmetrical hemlines.
“Terrific Saint Laurent,” said Ellin Saltzman, senior vice president and fashion director at R.H. Macy & Co. She liked the brocade suits, flamenco dresses and white blouses with black satin skirts.
At the end of the show, when Saint Laurent came down the runway, he looked dazed. But by the time he joined his bride at the end of the podium, he seemed almost angry. He grabbed at the model’s orchid stole and pulled it down hard. No one was quite sure what he was trying to do. Saint Laurent stood for a moment, accepting the ovation (many in the audience were on their feet), then marched back up the runway and retreated. Backstage, there was the usual mad swirl of admirers.
Katherine Hamnett – Still A Visionary To Me
She is a goddess, don't you think?
Katharine Hamnett has headed for the Big Top before — literally. Her first women’s show in Paris at the Cirque d’Hiver Sunday marks her move into fashion’s center ring.
The show is aimed at catapulting Hamnett into the pantheon of big-time designers. Her campaign to grab more of the international fashion spotlight began last spring when she signed licensing deals with Italy’s Zamasport and CGA for her main women’s and men’s collections and two secondary lines. She hopes the deals will help her build a fashion empire rivaling those of Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent or Ralph Lauren and shed the restrictions of being a London-based designer.
Hamnett deserted the London runways after the spring shows when she blasted the British Fashion Council for its “unprofessionalism” and lack of organization. Now there are reports other designers may follow her to Paris.
“The U.K. has nothing anymore,” Hamnett says bluntly. “This is a cheap labor area, which is why all the Japanese companies are setting up manufacturing plants here. It is a depressing situation. They don’t know how to treat designers here. That is the tragedy of England.
“They deal with designers so much better in Italy,” she adds, sitting in her studio in north London. “They really bend over backward to work with you. They understand designers there.”
Yet London remains the well spring of Hamnett’s sexy inspiration. “There is a center of sanity here, yet a witty edge,” says the designer, who started her business a decade ago. “All you have to do is look at things like posters and advertisements. London hits the right note between cleverness and sophistication.
“The street is looking sad at the moment, but it still has that edgy thing that is better here than anywhere else on the planet. London design is as strong as it always has been, but it doesn’t end in commercial lines.”
Hamnett’s criticisms of the British fashion industry have been echoed repeatedly by other British designers, who increasingly are looking to Italy to produce their collections. But Hamnett is the only designer to sign such far-reaching licensing agreements. Her deals with Zamasport for her main women’s and men’s collections and with CGA for the Hamnett II collections are expected to increase her annual sales of 20 million pounds ($32 million) as much as 30 percent this year, and the designer predicts her secondary lines could double sales within the next few years.
“The [main] women’s collection is wearable, forever clothes in beautiful fabrics,” says Hamnett, whose show will be called Ooo-L!ah-L!ah Paris. “I think there is a new classicism in fashion now, but there is a kitschy side to it.
“There’s a lot of color in the collection, too. One thing about Italy is that color works there and influences you. It’s nice when you see color in fashion again. It’s like being out of jail.”
The Hamnett II lines, on the other hand, are mainly man-made fibers with a funky touch. “Sportswear has to be cheap and accessible,” Hamnett proclaims. “I think Hamnett II will be great value for money because it will eventually be the classic designs that people can keep forever.”
Now that Hamnett has her women’s and men’s wear production organized, she is looking to expand further. First on the agenda is the U.S. market, where she would like to sign a production license within the next year. She thinks this is vital if she is to become as big in the United States as she is in Europe and Japan. “If we can penetrate America, we will grow and grow and grow,” she predicts.
She’s also developing a fragrance, as yet unnamed and with no date set for its introduction. “I am trying to build a big business that will continue after I’m dead,” says the 41-year-old designer. “Why not? It’s a nice little earner.”
Hamnett generally is in an antifashion mood, however. Her feeling is that women are tired of spending a lot of money on the latest clothes every season. “People basically buy clothes to get laid, and there always has to be that element in them,” Hamnett says enthusiastically. “But they have to be affordable.
“I think women have gotten tired of designer-this and designer-that. Fashion is everlasting, but it is a pendulum. It went from rags to Chanel, and now it’s back to rags again. You always have to remember people have wardrobes full of clothes and design from there. A woman can do the same things in cutoffs and a T-shirt as she can in a Balenciaga gown, after all.
“Fashion is not throwaway. Retailers are always pushing designers for something new, new, new. That is why classicism was forced out of the market. But if you look at things like Levi’s or Oshkosh, that is the way fashion will go; it will become a cult and the aim will be to make the ultimate this or that. That will mean less retailers, of course, because there will be less merchandise. But it is a sign of the times. The whole Green Movement means people want less.”
A conversation with Hamnett is impossible without discussing politics, the environment, business and children (she has two sons). After all, Hamnett is the designer who — while wearing a T-shirt that read “58 percent don’t want Pershing — met Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; who once did her own magazine centered around ecological issues, and who earlier this year designed “I Love Gorby” T-shirts with a photo of Mikhail Gorbachev inside a heart.
“I am becoming less materialistic, but I would love to do a reforestation project somewhere or buy a house in Morocco, turn it into an old people’s home and use solar power,” Hamnett says thoughtfully. “That kind of thing wouldn’t cost me as much as a Monet. I’d rather take the money I make and put it into projects like that than into a painting.
“Designers are the ones who have the ultimate responsibility in a consumer society,” she preaches. “The designer is the heart of the machine; he creates artifacts people die for. It is up to designers, then, to influence things.”
Revisited: Checking In With The Best – Bill Blass
BILL BLASS: Bill’s getting better. He had two knockout ideas in his collection Monday morning: bi- and tricolor suits and his sexy little lace dresses. For day, Bill keeps things clean, simple and, above all, happy.
But for night, Blass gets a little complicated. It’s almost as if he sees his Ladies moving from San Francisco to Salzburg, where they’ll need lots of overdone and overblown operatic gowns. Not to mention fringe, which Bill loves this season. Many of his Ladies will, too, but at least one expressed some apprehension during the show. “I’ll get all that stuff in my food,” said Pat Buckley as one of Blass’s white fringe numbers rolled by.
Bill also still loves animal prints — even if other designers think they’re passe. “It’s not a one-season fad,” insists Blass. “I’ve always done leopard, and I think they’re classic. They’ll always be there.” And Bill was as good as his word: He sent out animal-pattern cuffs, collars, shoes, jackets (even a half-and-half version), cocktail dresses and chiffon evening dresses.
Blass’s forte is counterpointing the TAILORED with the SOFT. This season, he balances a blazer with in-motion fringe skirts or returns to his favorite theme of pairing sweaters with sequins. One of his best ideas for evening was his sarong-wrap pants, which he did in prints and bright color mixes. All that Bill’s Ladies — most of whom were at his show — will need this spring is a pair of his sarong pants, a palm tree and a mai-tai.
Ellin Saltzman, senior vice president and fashion director at R.H. Macy & Co., Inc., said she loved “the way he tailored by day and mixed feminine ball gowns, feathers and sequins by night.” Kal Ruttenstein, senior vice president of fashion direction at Bloomingdale’s, said, “We loved the half-and-half suits. They were snappy and modern, as were the linen dresses.” For evening, he favored the little lace dresses. Lynn Manulis, Martha’s president, said Blass had “a very strong approach to spring” and thought the colorblock story looked particularly modern.
REBECCA MOSES: This season Rebecca returns to her signature label, and she delivered a smoothy. Moses took almost every hot trend from Europe and whipped it up in an appealing wearable way. Sportswear shapes were done in elegant fabrics, like lace jeans, chiffon shirts and metallic knit dresses. Moses gave her blazers a traditional front and loosened them up with a shirt-like back. They looked best teamed with matching slim pants.
Other highlights included the pale cotton plaids, sophisticated swimwear, linen trousers with metallic pinstripes; snappy short cardigan jackets, and a relaxed ivory silk twill group.
Yet there were a few clunkers: knits with crochet trim, tunics with sheer backs and pants trimmed calf-high with lace.
Joan Kaner, senior vice president and fashion director of Neiman Marcus, “just loved it; it’s exactly what this season is about.” Jessica Mitchell, vice president and fashion director of sportswear at Saks Fifth Avenue, said she liked “the active bodies in beautiful fabrics.” Missy LoMonaco, vice president and fashion director at Bonwit Teller, said it was “fresh, easy and soft, yet very salable.” Bernie Ozer, senior vice president at Associated Merchandising Corp., thought it was Moses’ best in a long time and especially liked the lace segment.
NORMA KAMALI: It was Monday in the park with Norma. The setting was Central Park’s 59th Street pond. Kamali put up benches facing the duck-covered water and autumn foliage to present her collections for OMO and Zamasport. Seventy-four models (that’s right, 74) marched, jogged or strutted, one outfit each, until the finale when all of them walked back and posed.
As good as the ambience was, it never overpowered Kamali’s spirited looks. She took the western theme to new frontiers with her all-over beaded group that included Aztec-pattern short dresses with fringed yokes. Her urban Annie Oakleys wore fringed bright and tight leather pants. In fact, Kamali opened her Happy Trails show with a gold trimmed black rayon western group replete with cowboy hats and western shirts.
But Norma was not always out West. She returned home and came up with a great idea: She took her classic swimsuit shapes and made them into dresses — long, short and with culottes. Her best stretch numbers were the Emma Peel jumpsuits with the fit of stirrup pants and the bouncy short slip dress with an underwire bra.
Norma wouldn’t be Norma, of course, without a few frights. For this Halloween she’s come up with some awful fringed flappers in black and red and enough studded stuff to outfit the Hell’s Angels.
Ruttenstein of Bloomingdale’s loved the draped stone jerseys, fringe looks and stretch pieces. Saltzman of Macy’s said, “What a great place to have a show. I loved the Indian fringe, the black jackets and the beige group.”
PERRY ELLIS: Marc Jacobs started out strong. He struck a level of sophistication that was absent from his last collection. Unfortunately, that level was not sustained throughout the show.
Referring to the Sixties and his inspiration, Mia Farrow, Jacobs showed some terrific suits with relaxed jackets over straight leggy skirts, chic mini trenchcoats, and an array of little dresses from sheaths to drop-waists.
Jacobs did for argyles what Isaac Mizrahi did for tartans last season, showing them in everything from little skirts to strapless sequined evening dresses. He scored big with his knits in general, including a pair of ankle-length jumpers over white Gazar shirts and huge Slouch sweaters.
But the Mia routine wore a little thin by the end. So, too, his picnic motif, that looked appetizing but sent you away only half full. One retailer commented that while it was a good young designer collection, it still is not developed to a level expected of a major SA house.
“We loved the American wit,” said Andrew Basile, fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman, noting the picnic group and the crochet sweaters.
Bloomingdale’s Ruttenstein called it a spirited, young collection. Macy’s Saltzman said the collection was “Mia Farrow-ish, yet modern.” Neiman’s Kaner found it “whimsical and charming.” Charivari’s Barbara Weiser called it “a big step for Marc.” She said, “There is a mature, secure vein to the collection. It’s beautiful, classic American sportswear.”
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