New York Designer Ready for a Fall ’86 Solo Flight

Bill Robinson didn’t even try to sound nonchalant.

“I’m scared to death right now,” the boyish designer said on a recent visit to Los Angeles.

The nerves weren’t without cause. At 37, this New York designer is launching his own menswear label with a fall ’86 collection. And in the fickle clothing trade, credentials and past glory are no guarantees for a new venture.

An unknown to most, Robinson has been designing behind others’ names for a decade. He was head designer for Calvin Klein menswear for eight years before leaving in 1983.

Dressed in a flurry of checks, stripes and paisleys, Robinson explained: “I wanted to take the line a little over the edge. Calvin wanted to go to a classic, traditional look.” For the next two years, he created Yves Saint Laurent’s American and Canadian men’s sportswear collections. Then, last spring, Robinson decided to stop hiding. Bidermann Industries (licenser for such big names as Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Yves Saint Laurent) agreed to back a Bill Robinson label--the sound of which still makes the designer jittery.

“When you’ve hidden behind others’ identities for so long, you’re not used to being out there and on the front lines,” he explained. “But I did always want to express myself more completely, rather than interpreting other people’s work.”

The New Jersey native, who studied at New York’s Parsons School of Design, says his sportswear will be stylized and trim, with a hint of the William Holden of the 1950s. The collection will be priced from $50 for a shirt to $800 for a cashmere jacket.

“I’m fairly well known within the menswear industry, so I think people are willing to give me a chance,” Robinson said.

Proof will come this month, as buyers converge on New York to choose their fall wares. Should his menswear find an audience, Robinson plans to enter the even more ephemeral world of women’s wear by 1988.