In one scene of "The Client" Susan Sarandon is wearing a simple blouse with a touch of embroidery. The designer of the blouse, Andra Gabrielle, who works in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, didn't realize she'd made the big screen until she saw the movie.
But Gabrielle shows no signs of going Hollywood. She is more artist than designer, delighting in using the finest silk ribbons and the thinnest imaginable threads to make delicate rosettes or embroidered leaves on wisps of nightgowns and blouses."All the details are important to me," she said. "One garment may have 70 different threads. In order to survive in the commercial world, I have to do something no one else does, and something that can't be knocked off cheaply."
Although her designs are sold only at Barneys New York stores at prices ranging from $250 to $1,200, they have attracted customers who collect them the way a teenager might collect T-shirts.
"One woman ordered 12 pieces a few weeks ago, then went back and ordered six more," Gabrielle said, sounding amazed. She's been making and selling clothes since she was a teenager in Beechurst, Queens, and has been collecting antique buttons, beads and laces almost as long.
The simplicity and elegance of her work and the way she reuses all materials, seem totally right for the mood of the 90s.
- Anne-Marie Schiro