Donna Karan, esteemed designer and accomplished business entrepreneur, was born in Forest Hills, New York on October 2, 1948. Her stepfather was a busy tailor and her mother was a working model putting Karan in the center of the fashion world. Karan began selling clothes at age 14 in Cedarhurst on New York’s central avenue. She graduated from Hewlett High School in 1966 and began to school at Parson’s the next semester. She attended Parson’s for two years and then dropped out to work full time for Anne Klein. Karan spent a good amount of her early career under the Anne Klein label and built a strong relationship with Anne. Karan became head of the Anne Klein design team until 1984. She gained a lot of business knowledge working under Klein who acted as a mentor for Karan’s early years in the fashion world. Because of the experience Karan got from working as head of Klein’s design team, by 1985 she was on her way to founding her company Donna Karan and by 1988 had Donna Karan New York (DKNY) well on its way.
Along the way Karan has achieved numerous awards and has been recognized as a strong icon in the fashion art community worldwide. She received the COTY American Fashion Critics Award in 1977 and then again in 1982. The COTY award is seen as the “Oscars” award in the fashion world. She was inducted in the COTY Hall of Fame in 1984. The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) named her Menswear Designer of the Year in 1992 and Womenswear Designer of the Year in 1990 and 1996. In 2004 she was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the CFDA. Donna Karan is a very popular designer in the fashion art world, but has not had the greatest reputation with the members of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). After many PETA protests have gathered at locations where Donna spoke on several occasions, she has announced that her Fall 2009 collection would be fur free and all of her collections in the future will be fur free as well.
Karan has split her company into many different lines to help meet the different likes and needs of the every day customer. From her mission statement, Donna explains that she “created the collection to appeal to women’s senses on every level”. DKNY, a collection based upon the solid colors navy and black with flares of neon color splash, is a design that is geared toward the young contemporary customer. The Donna Karan Menswear collection is for the contemporary business savvy man wanting clean lines and crisp designs for an every work day or day of leisure. Her Children’s Apparel lines are designs geared toward active energetic children who look bright and colorful while wearing practical young designs. Donna Karan’s 2009 Spring collection design inspiration came from a vision of loosely fitting clothing that evokes fluidity and freedom. The design’s color palette consists of green, beige, light charcoal, and brown. The garments fit loosely around the body and drape across the form with minimal embellishments. The DKNY 2009 Spring collection design consists of dynamic neon flares while bringing the “wearing your husbands jacket” aesthetic.
Karan keeps her options open and ideas broad to fulfill the wants and needs of the customer. Just like any artist, she works to appeal to not only one audience but multiple ones. Her creative energy is pumped through the while staff including those who work at the retail store; they are essentially like gallery owners who work to promote the art. I have found that I admire Karan’s ability to take her designs to heart and make all of her work very personal. In my work, I am very much personally attached to it and feel that I try to pump the same amount of heart and energy into each new part of my collection similar to Karan.
Donna Karan Bio
PETA Article
PETA Release
DKNY Website
Donna Karan Collection
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