Symposium Dialogue
Audience Comments and Questions |
 6 of 6 |
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Comment
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Can I make one comment about Donald's omission from the Fashion Walk of Fame because, Grace, you brought that up and I think its an important one? I was on the committee the last two years. Donald's name was before the committee and it was hotly contested and debated and it had to do with the costume career.
The fact is that this was not a life that was only devoted and committed to Seventh Ave. and ready-to-wear. So it was the costume work that kept distracting people and eventually derailed the whole nomination.
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| Bernadine Morris |
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At the time, people said he was paying more attention to the theater and not paying enough attention to Seventh Avenue. That has hounded him all his life but I don't think that's a valid criticism.
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Gerald Blum
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This was an important part of Donald Brooks. He got great satisfaction out of it and he's a person who really loved the movies.
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Bernadine Morris |
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I think it was a question of timing. Donald came in at the beginning of the American look, whatever we want to define that as. He started in the 50's and by the 70's, fashion was moving on. Fashion doesn't stand still. We had the youth quake and the British invasion.
Time was passing and clothes were changing. Women were changing and young designers like Calvin Klein and Halston were a big part of it. While Donald was paying attention to his theatrical work, designers like Geoffrey Beene and Oscar de la Renta were rising.
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| Comment |
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As a consumer who came to this country in the late 50's from the highly constructed clothing market in Europe, I realized that people like Donald Brooks, John Anthony and Bill Blass had a whole different approach to clothing. They had to appeal to ladies from New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and California. They made clothes that were much more casual, unconstructed and sporty.
I feel the way they led the market then is what is happening to the market today. There are few designers left who want to cut and construct a garment. Clothes have to be made as inexpensively yet as attractively as possible to appeal to as many consumers as possible. It's a whole different world of marketing now then it was in the early 50's and 60's.
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Grace Mirabella
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Can we go further with your point? Construction in European clothes made them like little soldiers who stood up on their own. In America, you had Donald, John Anthony and Bill and their designs were softer, less constructed clothes.
These clothes that you are talking about were fluid, not floppy. They had line. Is that what you are trying to say?
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| Comment |
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American designers used different fabrications like knits. I found that American clothes were much more casual and comfortable in their approach and they served many more purposes in a woman's daily life.
European clothes were made for specific reasons: a dinner party, a ball, a beach resort, cocktails or dinner parties whereas American clothes could go day to night. I had a couple of Donald Brooks' evening clothes that fit into my lifestyle a lot easier than a French or Italian evening gown would.
These younger designers who were around in the late 50's, early 60's had a more casual approach and I feel it was because they had to appeal to a vastly greater number of women across America.
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| Grace Mirabella |
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- but also a different woman, she's not the same woman as a European woman as you know. If you've come from Europe, you know that difference.
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June Weir |
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The thing that struck me about this exhibit over and over again was that every piece came from some woman's wardrobe and I marvel at how women have saved Donald Brook's' clothes. You have not seen those clothes in the vintage market or up at Doyle where they sell designer clothes.
It was fascinating, Kathy, that you were able to put together such an exciting exhibition and have it done. The clothes were not from someone's archives but they were from women's private wardrobes.These are fifty, forty or thirty year old clothes and to think that women thought so highly of those pieces that they wouldn't allow them out of their house and I think you had a little trouble getting some of them out.
It's such a tribute to both you and Donald to say that these clothes were owned for that many years. As Jeane said, she won't give up that Cary Grant pajama outfit.
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| Jeanne Eddy |
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Not only that but I have two coats in the exhibit and I can't wait to get them back.
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| Question |
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Are you talking about the hounds tooth and the pony print coats? Have you seen Michael Kors for fall? Look at them. He has versions of those two coats in similar fabrications.
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Grace Mirabella
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That's called research.
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| Question |
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I assume that McCardell's name was on the Townley Label. Was Donald's name on the label? Did they market his name at all?
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Gerald Blum
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Yes, his name was on the label: "Donald Brooks for Townley".
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