Life's about the journey, not the destination, right? And what a journey it has been over our collective lifetimes - lifelong scholars of style, fashion, cultures. We've traveled every continent by land, sea and air over the last three decades, in search of inspiring, authentic fashion trends. Except Antarctica. Fashion isn't really their jam.
Life is a Highway. "I'm having something delivered to your house for our trip," Steve casually mentioned to Adrienne. Imagine her surprise discovering that 'something' was a 1967 Cadillac Coupe de Ville convertible. The Pursuit of Style requires traveling in style.
I Love Leo...
This picture was taken by the AP. The next day, it made the front page of the Brockton Daily Enterprise. My mother called, breathless. “The phone hasn’t stopped ringing!” she exclaimed. The local ladies couldn’t get enough of it, seeing me, her son, on the front page of the newspaper with Lucille Ball
When the movie Mame was being made, I was approached to do a collection, in collaboration with Trevira a German textile company. Warner Brothers was the other ingredient. I did a collection of about sixteen pieces, all made in Trevira Star, a synthetic jersey, right up my alley. Pleatable. We launched the collection with a show at the Plaza, which coincided with the opening of the movie
The collection was incredible. I did personal appearances at Bloomingdales, then on to Filenes in Boston; Trunk shoes in Houston at Sakowitz; Magnin in San Francisco and LA; Liberty House in Honolulu. It was very exciting. It was a summer collection. Normally we didn’t do much summer business, but we really knocked it out of the park with this line. The Mame inspired fashion paired with Warner’s PR juggernaut.
When the movie opened, they did a big cocktail party at the townhouse on Beekman Place, where the real Patrick Dennis (and his imagined Auntie Mame) lived. I took an editor from Harper’s Bazaar as my date. Today I would have taken my boyfriend but in those days you had to take a woman with you.
They kept moving me around. “As soon as Lucy comes in, you’ll be the first person she talks to,” they assured me. They kept moving me around. And around. It was starting to get a little boring, and then ... “Here she comes!” Before I knew it, I was talking to Lucille Ball. I couldn’t believe it.
Meeting Lucy was a trip. She was larger than life. And she was nice.