I would like to note that Donald Brooks replaced Claire McCardell who died in 1957. He was the designer who was selected to fill her shoes and fill her shoes he did!It was on that basis I believe that Parsons bestowed upon him a very distinctive award, given to only four people in the history of the school: Adrian, Christian Dior, Claire McCardell, and Norman Norell.

Mr. Norell, who picked up Donald's award for him, commented that American fashion was known for the differences in each designer's approach. There was Bonnie Cashin who believed very much in sportive, leather and layering of fashion. You had Geoffrey Beene who was well on his way of establishing a very individual, very couture like approach to clothes and there was Anne Klein who had her own sportswear firm at that time.

There was something about American fashion during the late 50's and early 60's that encouraged women to become more individual. Donald loved women and loved the way they looked in all of his clothes.

Inspired by the 1930's, he said, "You never saw Constance Bennett looking like Greta Garbo and you never saw Millicent Rodgers looking like Mona Williams". They each had a distinct style and he liked the individual aspect of women in that period.

That is how he got started. I always admired Donald's clothes because I thought, like Claire McCardell's, they were the kind of clothes that were very Lord & Taylor. You have to realize that spending forty years in a particular store I have a little narrowness about fashion.

Those feelings were very much in a sportswear vein, not that Donald was a sportswear designer, but that his designs had fluidity and movement.

We had a customer that wanted to look like that. I'll give you a good example. We discovered Pucci with its prints and solids sportswear, wear anywhere look. A woman could go day to night wearing a Pucci dress. A lot of that feeling was in the air with other designers too but Lord & Taylor captured it.

The years that I worked there as executive VP in charge of marketing and sales promotion, that was an important part of our image as an updated, contemporary, yet classic store. It's also what Donald was about. Not only could he do regular clothes, couture type clothes for Diahann Carroll (No Strings) but he could also design for a seventeenth century play like A Flea in Her Ear. He could do many things at the same time.

Donald has a sense of humor and that sense of humor got into many of his clothes. He never deviated from his beliefs and was never influenced by Paris, Italy or anybody else. In 1971, the New York Times did a poll and Donald Brooks and Saint Laurent were mentioned as the top designers that year. I don't want you to think that he wasn't 'up there' at the time. It's just that he started doing other things.