Meet Donna Karan, American fashion designer and the creator of the Donna Karan New York and DKNY clothing labels.  Growing up in NY, Donna Karan was influenced by fashion from a young age by her step-father, a tailor and her mother who was a model.  After attending Parson’s School of Design for two years, she began designing for Anne Klein and eventually head of the Anne Klein design-team.  In 1985 she left to start her own company that quickly became known for her Essentials line, which offered 7 easy pieces every woman should own.  Three years later, in ’88 the DKNY collection was introduced,  as a modern, moderately-priced young collection, drawing from the spirit of big city life.

Karan’s clothing is designed to enhance and look good on every woman, not just coming down the runway.  Donna Karan is known to support the needs of modern women with her clothing. The saying goes, that before the production of a piece of clothes is approved by Karan, it has to look good on her! 

Find Donna Karan’s fashions at Donna Karan New York.  This desinger’s information was acquired at Fashion Infomat. 

Designer: Jill Stuart

Designer Jill Stuart was deep into the fashino industry since birth, as her parents owned a popular ’60s Manhattan clothing store called Mister Pants, dressing stars including Natalie Wood and Lucille Ball.  Leveraging those connections, Stuart was able to  jump-start her own career.  At 15, this Manhattan native designer had jewelery and handbags displayed in the windows of high end stores including Bloomingdale’s, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Henri Bendel and Neiman Marcus.  

The Jill Stuart label became well known for innovative ad campaigns with top fashion photographers.  While other designers were going grunge in the early 90′s Stuart turned to preppy and plaids, which became notoriously linked to the popular teen movie, Clueless.  Stuart’s feminine, sometimes frilly collections can be found in her Soho flagship, as well as in higher-end department stores, and has come to include handbags, shoes, and perfume. In 2007, Stuart launched a secondary line called Jill by Jill Stuart featuring ready-to-wear pieces at lower prices.

You can find Jill Stuarts beautiful collections at JillStuart.com.

All designer information was found from an article featured in New York Magazine. 

Designer: Tia Ciabani, Ports 1961

Designer: Rachel Roy

Originally from California, Rachel graduated from Washington DC then moved to New York to pursue her passion for design, working freelance – styling magazine shoots and music videos ultimately landing an internship at Rocawear where she was able to master her craft and build several influential relationships.  In Fall 2004, Roy introduced her own collection, RACHEL ROY, which debuted in department and specialty stores for Spring 2005. Using her sophisticated aesthetic to her own collection, incorporated with striking silhouettes, a sophisticated color palette and day-to-night pieces, Roy has attracted editorial acclaim in publications such as Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, W and Vanity Fair.

Dressing icons and starlettes including the likes of Michelle Obama, Kate Hudson, Lucy Liu and Penelope Cruz, also featured on The Oprah Winfrey show, RACHEL ROY is making a prominent and influential mark on fashion.  

RACHEL ROY NEW YORK has grown to include four full collections each year and recently created a joint venture with Jones Apparel Group Inc. in the hopes of expanding the wholesale business globally, introduce new product categories and open stand-alone stores in the United States and abroad.  To date, the RACHEL ROY collections are available at Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and top specialty stores worldwide.

Click HERE to find stunning RACHEL ROY collections.

All of this designer’s information was found at RachelRoy.com

City of Hope:

Hundreds of fundraising events are held for City of Hope across the nation each year. Every dollar raised advances our mission to transform innovative research into treatments that save lives here and around the world. Hundreds of thousands of people share your desire to make a difference by driving us to work even harder to conquer cancer and other serious diseases. On behalf of patients and their loved ones, we invite you to join the effort.

Such Events include: Walk For Hope, Eggleston Desert Gold Classic , Fight For Life and the Sierra Madre Wine and Jazz Walk.  

Breast Cancer Facts:

The seriousness of invasive breast cancer is strongly influenced by the stage of the disease; that is, the extent or spread of the cancer when it is first diagnosed. There are two main staging systems for cancer. The American Joint Committee on Cancer classification of tumors uses information on tumor size and how far it has spread within the breast and nearby organs (T), lymph node involvement (N), and the presence or absence of distant metastases (spread to distant organs) (M). II, III, or IV is assigned, with stage I being an early stage and stage IV being the most advanced. The AJCC staging system is commonly used in clinical settings.

 A simpler system used for staging of cancers is known as the SEER Summary Stage system and is more commonly used in reporting to cancer registries and for public health research and planning.  According to this system:

– Local-stage tumors are cancers confined to the breast.

– Regional-stage tumors have spread to surrounding tissue or nearby lymph nodes.

– Distant-stage cancers have metastasized (spread) to distant organs.

This information was provided by the American Cancer Society’s Breast Cancer Facts and Figures 2009-2010.  Find the PDF version HERE.

Auction Details:

Visit www.sharpieuncapped.com to participate in the auction and bid on designers’ Sharpie art work  and be sure to read Works of Art From the Heart for more info on the auction and Know the Facts 1 & 2.

Sharpie, Uncap What’s Inside!

In support of Breast Cancer Awareness month, Sharpie has teamed up with some of fashion’s finest designers in a charity initiative to benefit City of Hope, a Breast Cancer research, awareness and education center. 

A host of top fashion designers including Tracy Reese, Milly, Prabal Gurung, DKNY, Tory Burch and many more, have joined Sharpie to create works of inspiring art with a theme to empower women!  These amazing sketches, along with a t-shirt designed exclusively for Sharpie by fashion icon and breast cancer survivor Betsey Johnson, will be donated to City of Hope, a leading research, treatment and education center for cancer and other life threatening disease. 

The auction begins Friday, October 23th @1pm (PST) & ends Sunday, November 2nd@  1pm (PST).

Visit us at www.sharpieuncapped.com to learn more about how to participate and bid on one-of-a-kind art pieces created by fashion’s finest!  Pictures of the designer’s canvases will be featured on Sharpie Uncapped ,the Sharpie Fan page on Facebook and bid on these exclusive designer canvases at www.auctionsforhope.org.

 A big THANK YOU goes out to all the fashion designers participating in the auction!  Your designs are beautiful and your contribution will help to touch millions!

Be sure to pick up your Sharpie Pink Ribbon markers and highlighters this month, benefitting City of Hope. Check out the Pink Ink at www.sharpie.com

Waiting on my desk when I got back from Fashion Week were two awesome surprises – the first, a box filled with samples of all of the personalized Sharpie markers we made for the designers, and second, lots of Tweets from the designers themselves thanking Sharpie for giving their shows “signature” style ; )

SHARPIE LOVES FASHION WEEK DESIGNERS!!! 

Here’s who showed their Sharpie Style at Fashion Week:

Tracy Reese, Tory Burch, Charlotte Ronson, Donna Karan, DKNY, Marc Jacobs, Vena Cava, Betsey Johnson (of course – smooch!), Milly, Jill Stuart, Rebecca Taylor, L’Wren Scott, Proenza Schouler, Narciso Rodriguez, Alexander Wang, Probal Gurung, Erin Wasson, Adam Lippes and more! (If you didn’t see your favorite Fashion Week designer here, Sharpie markers are in the works).

And here’s a little trivia: 9 of the designers chose pink personalized Sharpie markers, same number chose black, one chose red and one chose blue.  See if you can spot ‘em:

Love Tracy Reese's Sharpie - love her cute rosette ring and girly font too!

Milly Marker on Run-of-Show

Charlotte's Pink Sharpie on Charlotte Pink Blacklight

The Designer Lineup on the exclusive Betsey Johnson Sharpie Tee

Sharpie Markers in the pink - and don't forget The Daily and Refinery 29 too!

That's Betsey's trademark smooch - and we didn't forget Teen Vogue!

Tory Burch Sharpie on Model Look Card - one of my fav designers!

Tory Tweeted her Sharpie and handed them out at the editor check-in-desk outside the show

Donna Karan Tweeted too - and gave to editors on final look day

Vena Cava was one of our biggest fans - blogs, Tweets - they talked up their Sharpie markers

Read Vena Cava’s blog post.

Refinery 29 Sharpie - clean, classic, Tweetable Sharpie

Refinery 29 included Charlotte Ronson Sharpie markers in its Twitter Troll.

So here’s your chance to be famous just like the big-name designers.  Order your own personalized Sharpie markers - design them your way, make your mark wherever you go just like the Fashion Week superstars!

For more Fashion Week action, including lots of inspiring Sharpie DIY fashion ideas, check out sharpieuncapped.com.  Uncap What’s Inside today and show the world your Signature Sharpie Style!

Don’t be a stranger – hang around the Sharpie blog this week for more Fashion Week recaps.  I could go on … and on … and on … so much Sharpie fun!