Donna layers in new looks
By Carole Sloan -- Home Textiles Today, 10/14/2002
AT THE NEW YORK MARKET — Spring at Donna Karan Home means layers, especially sheers that create peekaboo effects, satin, washable silks and an abundance of embroidery.
The three new Donna Karan Home statements run the gamut. They include Ballet Slipper, which is glamourous, vintage and Hollywood-inspired; Indochine, with intricate embroidery patterns, texturing and Duchesse satin for decorative pillows and quilts; and Evening Corsage in black and white, which was heavily influenced by the designer's ready-to-wear collections with embroidered dots, eyelet embroidery and circle eyelets, used alone or in combination.
The color palette is soft but dramatic with washed pink, cream and black for Ballet Slipper; jade and oyster with celadon for Indochine; and black and white for Evening Corsage. Sale prices for the queen in all three collections are $110 for the sheets, $500 for the queen duvet and $400 for the quilts in Evening Corsage and Indochine and $300 in Ballet Slipper.
In DKNY Life, the mood changes to street smart and high energy in six new statements. Street Blues draws on feminine fatigues for inspiration with a dramatically shirred and belted Fatigue Floral coverlet as the centerpiece.
Other details include appliquéd leather and smocked decorative pillows and a Cargo Quilt with a tight channel quilting. Sheets are 220 cotton with a solid and a floral with an attached ruffle at $44.99 for the queen, sale.
Cotton Candy uses grosgrain ribbon sewn together as dramatic pillows are set against a duvet that combines a giant floral motif with a solid panel, ruching and appliqué. The bed is layered and ruffled.
Havana Sunset mixes sunbaked shades of terra cotta, cinnamon, sienna brown and orange. The duvet has different-size stripes that are quilted and pieced. The Henna Print sheets are almond and nutmeg, and a foulard print in the colors is used as a decorative pillow.
The company is expanding its bath offerings with shower curtains and embellished towels as coordinates for the Pure Beach and Pure Frost beds.
Vintage Pique and Vintage Stripe towels add white, gold and twinkle.
Discussing the company's progress, Patsy Pollack, president of Donna Karan Home, said, "We are absolutely on target to double the number of doors next year."
She plans to increase the number of doors carrying the Donna Karan Home Collection from the current 50 to 75 to 100 next year.
Currently, there are 200 stores offering the Home and DKNY Life collections.
"We also see great potential in the expansion of bath, especially decorative bath. We're not looking for solid-color core towel programs."
