Anne Klein has no interest in insulating its customers from the shock of the new. Just when people were starting to adjust to the notion of the Anne Klein customer as the Delorean-cruising vixen of the most recent advertising campaign, the house has added another slashing-edge designer to the group of surgeons remaking Anne.
Liza Bruce sneaked a few swimsuits into the most recent Anne Klein show, where Manolo Blahnik designed shoes and Richard Tyler designed clothes, making it clear to younger women that, no, this is not your mother's Anne Klein.Bruce has signed a one-year contract to be the design consultant for the Anne Klein swimsuit license. Bruce built her own collection on a bathing suit business, and her clothes, treading the course of Helmut Lang, often look as if one could swim in them. She favors rubber, latex-coated fabrics and strict shapes.
"The intention isn't to get wild," said Robert Forrest, the creative design director for Anne Klein licenses. "The intention is to work with people who are the best specialists in their field."