Saving Anne Klein - can a faded fashion house reclaim its 1970s glory?
Five decades ago, Anne Klein set the standard for professional, grown-up style - fast forward to today, and the visionary put in charge of reviving the rundown label is starting to make her move
On the first day of her new job as the creative director of Anne Klein two years ago, Sharon Lombardo arrived at the company’s midtown Manhattan offices and was greeted by … no one.
There was no receptionist to escort her to a design studio because there was no studio. There wasn’t even an Anne Klein sign confirming that she was in the right place.
Lombardo cried that spring day, considering the enormous task that lay ahead: to revive one of America’s once-great fashion brands.
In the 1960s and 70s, Anne Klein set the standard for professional, grown-up style. The company didn’t just dress women for the workforce. It epitomised their independence, confidence and multifaceted lives. But since the death of its namesake founder in 1974, the company had churned through a half-dozen designers and multiple owners. By 2015, it had devolved into a morass of bland shift dresses, unflattering cropped pants and shoes that were gawd-awful dowdy.
Lombardo was recruited by the company’s latest owner to transform the look of the clothes and the shoes, the advertising, the logo, the attitude. Everything.
It’s the kind of fashion turnaround common in Europe, where lifeless legacy brands - Gucci, Balenciaga, Lanvin - have been resuscitated with jaw-dropping success. But many American brands, including Bill Blass, Halston and Geoffrey Beene, have struggled to reclaim cachet after the deaths of their founders.
