Fashion 89 : Dell’Olio on Politics and Spring Styles

Louis Dell’Olio, designer for Anne Klein, was wrapped in a navy cashmere double-breasted suit and Ray-Ban sunglasses, sitting by the pool of the Bel-Air Hotel, contemplating First Ladies.

“Barbara Bush made a great first impression. She’s put my mother--and everybody’s mother--back in style. She’s concerned about clothing, but not overly concerned. People like that about her,” observed the man whose designs have made the Anne Klein label one of the most financially successful in America.

“Mrs. Bush will have a great impact on fashion,” he continued, “just the way Mrs. Reagan did, but her impact will be exactly the opposite. Clothes are going to fit looser, glide over the body. Fewer tight-fitting shapes.”

With his spring collection, which opened at Bullock’s last week and was designed long before Barbara Bush was a White House shoo-in, Dell’Olio appears to have anticipated the First Lady’s influence. His new silhouettes are relaxed, skirts a bit longer, jackets a little slouchy. Skirts wrap and tie, pants pull on. Flourishes are kept to a minimum: a few gold buttons here, a crested blazer there. Casualness prevails.

A sprinkling of Gauguin-inspired prints and vibrant awning stripes in shades of papaya, mango, watermelon and South Sea blue spark an otherwise navy-and-white collection, heavily influenced by the late French designer Coco Chanel.

With the exception of a silky, Marilyn Monroe-esque halter-style, Anne Klein dresses are the most structured items in the line.

Although the styles and colors of Dell’Olio’s spring separates would suit Mrs. Bush, she and other women of her physical stature probably won’t be wearing them, because, as the designer points out, the clothes don’t come in large sizes.

Even though more than half the women in America wear a Size 16 or larger, Anne Klein, like other designer lines, only fits women Sizes 2 to 14.

“We work originally on a Size 8 model and the pattern is graded down to a 2 and up to a 14. Anything larger and you lose the proportion,” explains Dell’Olio, who is renowned for his easy-fitting blazers and tailored pants. He points out that as many Size 2 Klein pieces are sold as Size 14s.

The late Anne Klein, who died in 1974, purposely sized clothes larger than the specified size, he said. “A woman who wore a 16 would wear a 14,” explained Dell’Olio, who has been the sole designer since 1984. “It was a psychological ploy Anne used. Women felt good wearing a smaller size. We don’t do that any more--a Size 12 fits a Size 12.”

Even if it does fit, with jackets priced from $600 to $800 and pants retailing at about $400, the collection is not economically feasible for average women. Yet last year the designer division of Anne Klein sold about $30-million dollars worth of merchandise in about 275 stores, Dell’Olio reports. A best-selling black wool crepe jacket in the cruise collection sold 600 pieces nationally, despite a price tag of more than $700.

“Anne Klein has a customer who doesn’t care about price--she buys just what she likes and isn’t put off by the cost,” says the Brooklyn-born designer. “She’s not who I worry about.” He’s concerned, he says, about the woman who buys the lesser-priced clothing under the Anne Klein II label.

“We’ve exposed her to good clothing. She’s trained to look for quality, but she’s on a budget. With restrictions, duties and the drop in the dollar, it’s difficult to keep our prices down,” he says, adding that the sales volume and distribution of Anne Klein II is triple that of the more expensive collection.

Even production in the Orient can’t contain costs, Dell’Olio complains, because of rising fabric costs.

“We used to be able to afford cashmere blends for Anne Klein II--we can’t anymore,” he said. “The Chinese are controlling the silk market and the prices have gone up, so we’ve turned to rayon. Now that’s gone up. We keep maneuvering to keep the prices down.”

At this point, in addition to the Anne Klein and Anne Klein II collections, licensees manufacture shoes, belts, furs, jewelry, leather goods and swimwear under the Anne Klein label, bringing the annual volume to $400 million.

Dell’Olio predicts that within the next two years, the first Anne Klein designer boutiques will open in the United States. “It’s inevitable,” he said. “No store can afford to do it justice, the line is just too extensive for any one department or specialty store to represent the collection the way it is.”