Donna Karan is a designers designer, she does her work without the flash and controversial comments to get her headlines. Basically, the woman lets her work do the talking. She told the Times that critiques about her designs don’t affect her as much as they use to, instead she prefers going into her boutiques and listening to what her customers are saying instead.
“I’m not as affected by critics as I used to be,” she says. “What you see in five minutes of a show can’t express six months of work. When I go out into the stores, which I’ve been doing a lot more lately, I like hearing from women who’ve invested in something by me and truly enjoyed it. That’s why I design clothes. They have to have longevity.”
The 61-year-old designer is an inspiration to many, but like all designers she has her own style influences – other designers.
“Halston with his simplicity; Yohji; Armani and his feminising of the jacket; Jil Sander, another total fabric junkie like me; or Issey Miyake, my Eastern passion.” But it was her enthusiasm for a designer she hired straight out of Central Saint Martins in London that really had us amused: “I love, love, love Christopher!” she says of Burberry’s Christopher Bailey.
Ah fashion is such a small world, but she did say one other thing which made me wish I could make a living off blogging (or at least writing about fashion)…
“I don’t think you separate living from work. I think you work because you find something that you love and that you’re passionate about.”
We love you Donna Karan.
