If I had to choose just one trend that dominates the 2014 lingerie market, hands down it would be the floral explosion and in particular the blooming daisy. It is everywhere that design matters, laces, embroideries, prints and Hanky Panky’s showroom. I know because walking into their virtual garden a few weeks ago, I found myself in a riot of color and patterns begging to be sowed. Poetic, provocative, pretty and positively feminine, the seeds … Read More
In the mid 1980’s when I was VP of Private Label Development at Macy’s charged with building quality brands that would define the corporations Intimate Apparel business, I took a trip up to Bloomingdales where a Japanese based brand had just launched into the market. The company, Wacoal, had been carefully curated for the North American consumer. I was curious because in those years, all our textile research and procurement was anchored in Japan. … Read More
Someone told me the other day, that the market can seem so redundant; same old, same old. It’s not easy buying for margin and profit. You have to focus on inventory that sells quickly and often. In the USA, in particular, that often means basics, no nonsense, practical merchandise that speaks to a broad customer base. How, then, to balance the reality of the bottom line with the beauty of exquisitely designed lingerie? In this … Read More
December Rose
What is December’s rose?
She survives to the last minute
Succumbing only to the first snow
I know those winter blossoms
Dark as the early night
Might be a promise; Just a bud
Basking in the fading autumn light
Still she endures
Only one single rose
And when I cut her loose
And introduce her to the bedroom fare
Warm and moist
She blossoms there.
There is something magical about a delicate flower … Read More
When my girls were very young, I took them to see The Nutcracker Suite at Lincoln Center. We sat way up high, which for ballet, has its advantages. You can see the entire scope of the stage and all the visual variety offered by this timeless production. What’s more, the dancers float below you, commanding the imagination even as the story itself unfolds in a dreamy fantasy. When we left the theater, I let them … Read More
When my 31 year old daughter was a teenager, she sneaked down to the East Village with her best friend to get a tattoo inscribed on her back. I, born of the age when body ink was an indulgence of the not so nice girls, remained cool, but was admittedly a bit taken aback. It was not until my young design team did a shirt pull-up in my office to reveal all their backs adorned … Read More
I know I have been on Robe Triage for the past week. I already mentioned that this is a key holiday gift item, part of my mythology and hard to ignore by a veteran comfort monger, which I am, to a fault. I have more hang around the house clothes than regular wardrobe pieces and so foraging through the markets for items of great repose, seems a likely pastime for me, particularly when cold weather … Read More