Ingrid Sischy, Donna Karan New York (Assouline 2005) Image via Pinterest.
Have you heard? Vogue’s Donna Karan and DKNY patterns will no longer be available after next Wednesday, July 13th. According to the McCall Pattern Company, the licensor of the Donna Karan trademarks [the LVMH-owned Gabrielle Studio Inc.] has decided to end all pattern licensing. (Source: Facebook.)
Image: voguepatterns.com.
Vogue Patterns has been publishing Donna Karan patterns since 1987. The company added DKNY patterns in 1989.
Donna Karan patterns on the cover of Vogue Patterns magazine, Autumn 1987. Image via eBay.
DKNY patterns on the Vogue Patterns catalogue cover, November 1989. Image via eBay.
The end of both licenses makes the Spring 2016 releases the last DKNY and Donna Karan patterns.
Vogue 1488 by DKNY is based on a dress from the Pre-Fall 2013 collection. Image: vogue.com.
The original for Vogue 1489 in Donna Karan’s Spring 2014 collection. Model: Kati Nescher. Image: vogue.com.
Donna Karan announced her departure from Donna Karan International just over a year ago, saying she means to focus on her new, privately owned company, Urban Zen. Parent company LVMH will not be hiring a replacement. Instead, LVMH will be developing DKNY, which is designed by Public School’s Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne. (See Vanessa Friedman and Jacob Bernstein, “Karan Leaving Brand That Carries Her Name.”)
After thirty years of Vogue patterns—closer to forty, if we count her work at Anne Klein—Karan’s absence will be keenly felt. But could she return soon with Urban Zen patterns? Under her agreement with LVMH, Urban Zen’s “distribution … [can]not compete with any of the Donna Karan brands.” (See Donna Fenn’s interview for Fortune.) This could account for the unprecedented end-date for the Donna Karan and DKNY patterns, just in time for the Fall 2016 pattern launch. Update (July 7): the Fall 2016 patterns were released today, too early to avoid a distribution conflict. Perhaps for Winter 2016?
It would certainly be in keeping with Karan’s ethos if July 14th marked not just an end to the old pattern licensing, but also a new beginning. As her program notes always read, To be continued…
Urban Zen, Modern Souls collection. Image: Urban Zen.
Tagged: 1980s, 2000s, designer, DKNY, Donna Karan, fashion, ready-to-wear, sewing, Vogue Patterns
