(Long Island, N.Y.) Now that the summer is over, Long Islanders can now indulge in shopping for their Fall/Winter 2010 Collections at Saks Fifth Avenue at the Walt Whitman Mall. Only forty five minutes from West Hampton Beach Saks Fifth Avenue at the Walt Whitman Mall is one of Long Island’s premier shopping destinations. The specialty store focuses on high-quality and high-end merchandise. Through its 61 stores in 24 states, Saks Fifth Avenue sells such brands as Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Prada, and Dolce & Gabbana. I was specifically invited to attend their last Gucci Trunk Show on the main level in the Gucci Boutique by Stella Oh their Marketing Director. The event was a preview of the latest trends for Fall 2010 showcasing novelty handbags and shoes in an animal print.
“We are so excited to bring the Gucci Fall Collection here to Saks Fifth Avenue Store in the Walt Whitman Mall. We are delighted to service our top clients. It’s an amazing excuse to shop at Saks Fifth Avenue at the Walt Whitman Mall,” revealed Anna Tolosa Irving, Buyer of Designer Handbags, at Saks Fifth Avenue during our interview.
Founder Guccio Gucci established a leather goods company and small luggage store in his native Florence in 1921. Mr. Gucci’s vision for the brand was inspired by Great Britain and the refined aesthetic of English nobility he had witnessed during his employment in the Savoy Hotel. Mr. Gucci’s goal was to collaborate the two styles together creating his unique design of London’s classy sensibility with the unique skills of his native Italy. He Specifically wanted to use the master craftsmanship of local Tuscan artisans.
Saks Fifth Avenue at the Walt Whitman Mall
Within a short time, the brand received great success from the sophisticated international clientele on vacation in Florence thronged to Gucci’s bottega, seeking the equestrian-inspired collection of bags, trunks, gloves, shoes and belts. Many of Guccio’s Italian clients were horse riders and aristocrats. Their demands for riding attire encouraged Gucci to develop its unique Horsebit icon, a lasting symbol of the fashion house and its increasingly innovative design aesthetic. The brand continued to flourish and in the 1960’s Gucci products quickly became renowned for timeless design and were cherished by iconic movie stars and figures of elegance in the Jet Set era. Jackie Kennedy carried the Gucci shoulder bag known today as the Jackie O. Liz Taylor, Peter Sellers and Samuel Beckett sported the unstructured, unisex Hobo Bag. Gucci’s classic moccasin with Horsebit hardware has become part of the permanent collection at the Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In the 1960′ Movie Star Grace Kelly requested Gucci to create the now famous Flora silk print scarf that we still see today.
In the mid 1960’s, Gucci adopted the legendary interlocking double G logo, designing yet another important chic Gucci visual insignia. Gucci continued its expansion abroad with boutiques branching in Paris, London, Palm Beach, and Beverly Hills.
In 1994 Tom Ford became creative director of Gucci and instilled the luxury brand with a sense of daring and provocation that resonated with the fashion and celebrity world. The stiletto and silk cutout jersey dresses embossed with metallic hardware details became instant signature marks of Ford’s uniquely glamorous vision.
In 1995 Domenico De Sole was appointed CEO and Gucci was transformed into a public company. Gucci is named “European Company of the year 1998” by the European Business Press Federation for its economic and financial performance, strategic vision and management quality.
Today The label Gucci has achieved astounding tremendous global success and is named the most desirable luxury brand in the world. Frida Giannini recently was appointed sole Creative Director in 2006. Giannini continues to create a unique vision for Gucci that collaborates past and present. Saks Fifth Avenue at the Walt Whitman Mall continues to carry this luxury brand for its most discerning customers.
For more information on the Gucci Brand at Saks Fifth Avenue please visit www.saks.com
I also was invited to attend an elegant luncheon previewing the Eileen Fisher Fall/Winter 2010 Collection.
Eileen Fisher
This year’s collection personifies Eileen’s goals in making women happy. Beautiful quality, attention to detail, easy shapes that can be incorporated in many variations and wonderful hues that only enhance a woman’s confidence and well being.
The Eileen Fisher brand’s mission is to inspire simplicity, creativity and delight through connection and great design. Each season a woman wants to build her wardrobe not eliminate the clothes she has acquired. The modern woman looks for ease, function and versatility. Women want apparel that works together to produce not only comfort but style as well.
Eileen Fisher’s commitment is to design beautiful clothes that delight the spirit and simplifies today’s busy woman. It’s all about simplifying life with functional fashion.
All women want to feel good, express her own style and pursue her own unique dreams. The brand also transforms their vision for women through social consciousness initiatives in which they help to support the community. Eileen Fisher is devoted to impact women’s lives directly.
The fabric of choice for Eileen Fisher’s brand is linen pure and simple. Nearly twenty-five years ago, when Eileen established her clothing line with a system of simple shapes, the fabric she chose was linen!
Ms. Fisher has always adored the cool feel and natural beauty of a linen requiring less water, fertilizer and pesticides to grow than cotton. The brand continues using organic linen for its second season.
“I started EILEEN FISHER for a very personal reason, I was having trouble getting dressed. At the time I was working as an interior and graphic designer. In my mind I kept seeing these simple shapes for clothes. I knew they had to be beautiful colors, great fabrics and have certain shapes and proportions that worked together. This was my “aha” moment, a system of dressing that I’d been looking for ever since I abandoned my Catholic school uniform back in Des Plaines, Illinois.
Although I couldn’t sew and only had $350 in the bank, I believed in these simple shapes. I had four shapes made up and took them to The Boutique Show in New York. Encouraged by $3000 in orders, I expanded my “line” to eight pieces. The second show brought in $40,000 in orders. Suddenly I wasn’t just Eileen Fisher. I was EILEEN FISHER, INC.,” Ms. Fisher recently stated.
The Eileen Fisher Boutique is located on the second floor of Saks Fifth Avenue at the Walt Whitman Mall in Huntington Long Island.
