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y Daryl Brower
Every closet needs at least one
perfect dress and chances are you’ll find that dress in
designer Kay Unger’s collections. Made with a modern
sense of style and color, not to mention a meticulous
eye for flattering detail, Unger’s clothing is beautiful,
feminine, easy to wear, and virtually ageless in appeal.
“I’ve dressed thirteen year olds and I’ve dressed sixty and
seventy year-olds,” says Unger, who is herself a stunning
and stylish 65. “It’s not age, it’s a state of mind.” That
mindset is one of chic confidence and effortless elegance,
something Unger picked up at a very young age. “My
mother had the most beautiful clothes,” she says. “No
matter where she was going she looked perfectly pulled
together and perfectly comfortable in her own skin. And I
wanted to be just like that.”
Unger, who got her first sewing machine at the age of
eight, taught herself to sew and admits her methods and
materials were a bit unorthodox. “When my parents went
to sleep I’d take the bedspreads and bath towels and sew
them into skirts and strapless dresses” she recalls. “Then
I gave them out at the holidays as gifts.” Despite her early
ingenuity, Unger had no plans to be a fashion designer.
“I thought you had to be a genius to be a designer,” she
says. “And I certainly wasn’t a genius.” She did include the
profession on her childhood list of “things I want to be
when I grow up,” but it ranked after figure skater and mom.
(Her reasoning for the latter was that, “moms get to wear
beautiful clothes.”) By the time college
rolled around she had decided to
become an artist (“I thought it
would be easier than being a
fashion designer,” she laughs.) and
enrolled in the painting program at
Washington University. While there
she took a few design classes
and decided that the fashion
department was where she really ly
wanted to be. “Painting became
my hobby and I got serious about
design,” she says. In 1965 she
transferred to Parsons, where as
she puts it, “I learned the right
way to sew.”
Always one for ladylike
refinement, she showed up for
her first few weeks of classes
at Parson’s in a pillbox hat
and gloves—“I didn’t quite fit
in,” she laughs. Her personal
style lightened up a bit, but
her work focused on elegant pieces with lots of curves
and vintage detail. At critiques she was usually the only
student with a portfolio of dress designs and she found
herself fascinated by patternmaking and the skill that
went into crafting pieces of paper into templates for
dimensional designs. “I learned so much about fit and
flattery, and I learn more every single day,” she says.
Unger doesn’t design for the runway, but for the real
world, saying she has a duty to make women of every
shape and size feel gorgeous and good about themselves.
“I have two kids, I’ve lived a lot of different sizes,” she
says. “So I understand what women want and need. And
I fully believe that whether you’re short, tall, thin or fuller
figured, you can find clothes that fit and make you feel
great about yourself.” To that end her clothes are curvy
and loaded with detail: elegant trims, ruffled and wrapped
touches, embroidered elements, all designed to shape,
sculpt and flatter. “You put on one of our dresses and you
instantly have a waist and look taller and leaner,” she
explains. “We don’t hide the form, we enhance it—no
matter what its shape or size.”
Fashion week was in full swing when we visited Unger’s
showroom, but Unger explains
that she skips the tents in
Bryant Park, preferring instead
to sink money into the clothes.
“There’s an enormous cost
to putting on a show,” she
explains. “I’d rather invest in
developing our line and keeping
our price points affordable for
our customers.” To keep the
ideas flowing (and the dresses
coming), Unger’s studio is run
as a team effort, with designers,
patternmakers and sewers each
responsible for a specific segment
of the business, be it smart suits
or elegant evening wear. “I like to
say it
takes a village,” Unger says. “I
have
a team of amazing designers.
I couldn’t give my customers the
incredible product I do all by myself.”
Like Unger, the designers on each
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