Donna Karan

Donna Karan was introduced to fashion at an early age. Her father was a custom tailor, and her mother was a model and industry saleswoman. “Basically, I grew up on Seventh Avenue,” she has said. A student at Parsons in 1968, Karan left school to work for sportswear designer Anne Klein. Over the course of the next three years, she was fired, re-hired, and by 1971, appointed Associate Designer. After Klein’s sudden death in 1974, Karan was tasked with the responsibility of completing an unfinished collection—even though she had given birth to her daughter, Gabrielle, just days earlier. During her ten years at Anne Klein, it is generally agreed that Karan, along with fellow designer Louis Dell’Olio, modernized the company’s look.

Karan launched her own label in 1985. She embraced the concept of separates, but her “seven easy pieces” had a greater degree of refinement than the sportswear separates that Anne Klein had pioneered. Karan designed separates that were ideally suited to the urban working woman. Her mix-and-match components were practical and “womanly” (in that they followed the contours of the female body), which was in stark contrast to the broad-shouldered power suits that were then prominent. A bodysuit was often the first layer, which was then combined with other sleek, body-conscious, “easy” pieces, such as tights and a wrap skirt. Usually black or other neutral colors—and rendered in sensual, tactile cashmeres and jerseys—these garments could transition from day to evening with minimal adjustment. Such transformations were often achieved by adding a bold accessory or belt from Robert Lee Morris, a jewelry designer with whom Karan had a longtime collaboration.

“Donna Karan remains the epitome of the woman she designs for, the chief executive officer, the woman in charge,” wrote Carrie Donovan in 1986. During the 1980s and 1990s, the company produced a number of influential advertisements to which sophisticated, highly successful women could relate: a “candid” shot of a busy executive balancing her professional and family lives, for example. An ad in 1992 depicted a future in which a woman had reached the highest level of power, as president of the United States.

In 2005, Karan told Ingrid Sischy that she had set out to design for “women, who, like myself, lived a hectic life, who are in touch with their own sensuality, who know their own bodies, who know what they want.” Karan stepped down as chief designer for her namesake label in 2015. While Karan’s main line was suspended, Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow of the brand Public School were appointed creative directors of DKNY.