FASHION

a wrap," in Hollywood lingo refers to the end of a movie pro-
duction, but in some circles an elegant wrap refers to Adrienne
Landau. This New York-based fashion designer has a celebrity
following including Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Katie Couric,
Aretha Franklin and more. On the cover of the February 2003 issue of
Vanity Fair, actress Salma Hayek wore an Adrienne Landau wrap
slung around her hips, while Lisa Presley donned a pink shearling on
the April 2003 cover of Roiling Stone.
Landau, whose fashions are available locally at Saks Fifth Avenue in
Troy, visited the Somerset location in the fall for an exclusive interview
with Piatinunz. Landau was always artistically inclined. At age 25, she
and a friend created a photo documentary of her life and held an exhibi-
tion. "I titled it Growing up in America, and it featured everything
including my Bat Mitzvah and my life at art school," says Landau. When
her oversized paintings were not selling, she traded her canvases for
some fur scraps. She began integrating furs on sweaters, shawls and
coats and made the transition to fashion designer.
In the 1980s, the Adrienne Landau Collection featured many
accessories of leather and snakeskin. Today the collection is a diverse
mix of capes, stoles, furs and wraps. "I go with the flow," says
Landau, who favors a cashmere cape with sable tails or a kimono over
a basic black outfit.
Her current styles range from a pink shearling jacket, perfect with
jeans, to an embroidered coat for an evening event. This season the
fur vest and the shearlings in vibrant colors are popular.
Landau uses real fur — fox, mink, curly lamb, and sable — in her
designs with price points ranging from a $145 fox neckpiece to a
$6,000 hand-beaded kimono.
Landau credits her family with giving her the motivation to focus
on her designs. She mentions her grandparents and parents. "My
father had a bakery, and my mother said to specialize." The family
used the finest ingredients for their cookies, using recipes from
Vienna.
She takes her family's advice while designing her accessory collec-
tion: "Be the best in one thing."

— Carla Schwartz

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