Isabel Toledo for Anne Klein
A Moribund Brand Gets a Dose of Fash-Insider Chic
Can fashion editor fave Isabel Toledo, known for artistically draped & decidedly non-production line designs, transform the long irrelevant Anne Klein brand?
Since her death in 1974, Anne Klein’s eponymous label has never recovered its place as one of the premier lines of American chic. Despite a revolving door of design talent over the years including Donna Karan, Louis Dell'Olio, Richard Tyler, Patrick Robinson, Ken Kaufman & Isaac Franco, Charles Nolan, and Michael Smaldone – the brand has held out tantalizing potential, but never seemed to achieve it.
RESURRECTING A LONG-DEAD BRAND WITH FASHION CRED
However now that fash-insider fave Isabel Toledo has been brought on board as Creative Director, Jones Apparel – which acquired the label along with Kasper A.S.L. in 2003 – the $500 million brand (wholesale, retail & licenses) could finally live up to potential. When Toledo’s first collection for Anne Klein at Fall 2007 Fashionweek, it was met with glowing praise. "It's an American sportswear collection but a very hip, modern sportswear collection,” Ikram Goldman, owner of the hip boutique Ikram (one of the few stores other than Barneys New York to sell the line) recently told WWD (Jones Gives Anne Klein the Toledo Touch, Thursday, August 16, 2007. “It has Isabel's quirky touch, and that makes the collection different from the Anne Klein that people are used to. Isabel has a way of designing clothes that make a woman look beautiful and interesting, and her pieces are timeless."
While Toledo brings her status as a New York editor fave – along with the other half of the Toledo social power duo, husband Ruben, an in-demand illustrator – it is her artistic touch that most stood out about her inaugural collection for Anne Klein, as well as her thoughtful approach regarding the legacy of the founder. "I started out with thinking very American, very sportswear, thinking what Anne Klein was about. She stands for the ultimate women's American point of view,” notes Toledo. “My first collection was dedicated to the clean and extreme vision of a woman…The hardest and most important thing has been not to follow trends, but to be very pure to the thought of Anne Klein. I have been working hard at giving Anne Klein a fingerprint for the future. She was gutsy, and it was no-nonsense dresses, which today don't sound as exciting or groundbreaking, but in her time were...so how do I interpret that?
KEEPING IT ACCESSIBLE
Interestingly, unlike Norma Kamali’s pricey collaboration with Everlast ($115 for black lycra leggings, $280 for a dip-dyed jersey dress), Toledo has instead chosen the mass-clusivity approach – making goods with a designer’s imprimatur available at the mass level like Vera Wang’s partnership with Kohl’s, Viktor & Rolf for H&M, and most famously, Isaac Mizrahi for Target. In addition to clothing, look for an entirely revamped line of AK Anne Klein accessories bearing the Toledo touch such as bags, jewelry, denim & shoes, and the launch of AK Anne Klein Sport in Spring 2008. “I have really wanted to give it credibility. I have wanted to take things very slowly to figure out how to innovate and not alienate. It's hard because fashion today, or designer fashion anyway, is for a certain type of woman, but I really want to keep Anne Klein very accessible. I tried to invoke it with innovation, with good cuts, things I have felt you owned forever… It's all about building on the past collections, with clothes that last forever.”
