Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.life From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Designer introduces a youthful Escada Date: Thu, 26 Nov 92 15:00:28 EST Message-ID: Lines: 73 \SE E;LIFE;WAY OF LIFE \SS (WS) \HD Designer introduces a youthful Escada \BY Mary Hellman \CR COPLEY NEWS SERVICE Taking charge of an established fashion house is a little like jumping into the driver's seat of a speeding race car. It's especially bruising when the change is marred with tragedy. Michael Stolzenburg knows the feeling. The German-born designer had been a member of the design team for Escada for five years, working hand in hand with the company's founder and style setter, Margaretha Ley. When she fell ill earlier this year with the cancer that would eventually take her life, all responsibility for the giant spring-summer '93 collection fell to Mr. Stolzenburg and his fellow designers. "In the last two years, I had worked very closely with Miss Ley - we traveled together, discussing everything, and she taught me a lot," he recalls. "In companies where I was before, the chiefs never told you why they did something. But Miss Ley, every time she did something, she told us the reason. So we learned." Those lessons enabled the team to deliver a collection - couture in mood and fit, but not price - typical of those that won the line fans around the world since its founding in 1979. Early in June, as they were finishing their task, often consulting with Miss Ley in the hospital, she died. A short time later, Mr. Stolzenburg was tapped to take her place as chief designer. "One and a half years ago, she talked to me and said that one day she wanted me to take the collection over. She had different reasons then, because at that time she didn't know that she was sick," he says. "In the beginning I was, of course, very happy, because it was a great compliment. But it was a great responsibility, too." Now, instead of focusing on design of the collection's jackets and hallmark prints, the 34-year-old Mr. Stolzenburg oversees every detail, from preliminary sketches to finished outfits - about 1,200 pieces per season. He also is the line's spokesman, breaking from work in Escada's Munich headquarters for press interviews and in-store appearances. Longtime Escada lovers - and there are many - will notice a more youthful bent. Among the exquisitely tailored suits are studded leather hot pants, print jeans jackets and jeans, and shorts suits. "I stayed with the sophisticated and elegant look of Escada, that's for sure," Mr. Stolzenburg says. "But I wanted to make it more youthful - more light materials, not so fitted, not so couturish. "Miss Ley, she was one generation and she learned the old couture - fitted jackets and the like. I'm another generation, for sure, and I'm doing unlined jackets, more loose jackets. I want to bring my generation's ideas and add them to the sophisticated, elegant generation. "I think that's very normal if your head designer changes." The resulting collection, Mr. Stolzenburg pointed out, mixes and matches for a more versatile wardrobe. "I think about the modern woman and what she really needs, and I think she wants clothes she can wear the whole day," he says. "You can wear one of our cashmere jackets with our jeans and make it very young and sporty; then put the jacket with a gabardine trouser and a silk blouse and you look very different, more dressy." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM