DONNA KARAN

Perhaps most famous among women for inventing "the body", Donna Karan is now one of the biggest names in fashion with an empire of 16,000 employees. Born to a model and a haberdasher in 1948, she was obsessed with fashion from an early age. After two years at The Parsons School of Design in New York, she went to work at Anne Klein where she became associate designer in 1971 and, after Klein died in 1974, head designer. Ten years later, and with the support of her husband Steven Weiss, Karan founded Donna Karan New York.   Her first collection, though not radical, delivered a system of dressing entirely new to those used to Eighties power suits. She combined elements of tailoring with sportswear to ensure clothes were "user-friendly and luxurious". Karan is also regarded as being one of the chief innovators of the bridge line: in 1988, Karan introduced the cheaper DKNY label in an attempt to dress her daughter. Today, Karan’s compnay also produces menswear, jeans, accessories, hosiery, fragrance and cosmetics. “Everything I do is a matter of heart, body and soul,” says Donna Karan, chairman and chief designer of the international company that bears her name. “For me, designing is a personal expression of who I am – wife, mother, artist and business person – the many roles that women everywhere are trying to balance. But before I can be anything else, I’m a woman, with all the complications, feelings and emotions.”

Donna Karan New York takes on a continental vitality that has global appeal.

The 2001 sun and optical collection reflects purity of line, a lightness of material and quality of workmanship that is unmistakably modern. Designed with comfort in mind, Donna Karan, one of the most powerful fashion brands today, is setting trends again with her sophisticated and luxurious new "Beta Ti" collection. This colection is about Donna Karan's sensibilities: comfort, hidden tecnology, body conscious; dressing, and lifestyle. Like all of Donna Karan's collections this look carries over to both men and women.