European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 15, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Oleg Cassini at 74 Young Man with White hair by Lawrence Neumeister associated press Oleg Cassini the 74-year-old fashion innovator who created Jacquelin Kennedy s wardrobe has designs on a new harness racing career to Rev up his on the go lifestyle. I think i m a Young Man with White hair he says. It s dangerous. When you concentrate for two minutes in a sport that is dangerous and exciting you forget about the  on feb. 25, he was thrown from his sulky on his first Day of professional racing after becoming the oldest Man to get a provisional harness Driver s License. He returned to racing the following Day and finished first. This is part of the philosophy of my life he added. Forget the age. You can slow Down aging to such a degree that it becomes imperceptible. I Hope you Don t laugh but i feel any new adventure i can handle just As Well As when i was 25. I m not As Strong or Quick but i m  his ability to Bounce Back also was demonstrated after the october Stock Market crash when he lost what he said was a  he said his losses were sufficiently Large that i Felt depressed. But if you have a bad Day at the Stock Market you say i made a mistake and i la do something else " Cassini marched on just As he did when his family lost its Fortune and status while fleeing revolutionary Russia rendering his count title worthless. Just As he did when his first daughter was born up photo Oleg Cassini following his race track Accident. Blind deaf and severely retarded after a Man with German measles approached his wife Gene Tierney who was pregnant at the time. The designer called his life a Story of riches to rags to  Cassini describes in his autobiography in my own fashion How he had so Little when he moved from Europe to new York in 1936 that he lived for a time at the Myca. He later moved to Hollywood where he entertained some of the glitzy Community s More glamorous women including Marilyn Monroe. He was once engaged to Grace Kelly. He returned to new York and became famous designing clothes for mrs. Kennedy. Because he was treated As a close Friend of the Kennedy family the status of designers was raised he said. Now he continues to design clothing and is enjoying a very Good moment in my  every Day i design like i always did he said. But the Industry has changed he added. While designers used to create clothing for individuals they now create fashions As part of show business to impress the  As a result he said some people spend a lot of Money on things that Aren t right for  generally speaking people follow quite blindly what is proposed to them. The gurus of fashion propose something and Many of the people follow. Some succeed and some not he said. He has no plans to step aside anytime soon. I just refuse to listen to the Over the Hill thing he said. The Young Are trying to take your place in the Sun. I m very effective at what i do. I feel i paid my  packaging by a Oma Picasso by Melissa Sones United press International Paloma Picasso is Bec Mingas prolific a businesswoman Asher father was a  addition to jewelry for Tiffany & co. And a fragrance Picasso has Bath products and sunglasses As of Spring 1988 China Crystal Ceramic tile and a Complete line of accessories due in september 1988. It s exploding this year she said in new York noting that her father s productivity is what she has Long admired believing it to be the result of a striking ability to focus so fast and move on without Down time. Asked about her own considerable output she says if i have an appointment a photo Paloma Picasso at 9 with the plate people i think  but left alone to design then you find  Paloma Picasso is sensitive about comparisons to her father and she is fierce about personal Independence. Her strongest move to Date is the creation of Lopez Cambil ltd., the accessories company she began in March with husband Rafael Lopez Cambil whose line debuts in the fall. These Are not she repeats products by licensing arrangement or contract with another company As her others Are. We realized it s not easy to work with big companies she said and there Are too Many people making  Picasso products from handbags to plates Are easily recognizable beginning with the red and Black color scheme of Picasso s own lips and hair red and Black Borders on her new plates the inside cuff of a glitzy Gauntlet Glove or the lining of a Black leather Belt. And beginning with the Tiffany collection she frequently uses a bold heavy jewelry Motif. Handbags have handles that look like Gold bracelets. There Are crystals imbedded in Ceramic tiles Gold charms on handbags and her perfume bottle is shaped like a pair of earrings she owned. A wild eccentric Dresser in the 1960s and 70s, Picasso now wears Azzedine Alaia strict hard edged clothes not unlike her hard edged handbags heavy jewelry and severe personal appearance. People Are sure when they meet me from the photographs to see somebody who is rather severe and frightening to people. I guess because i used to be so timid in order to protect myself i constructed this image which is really me but i m much softer in real  there is also an identifiable Picasso shape from the round donuts shaped perfume bottle and the circular charms to signature striped Viscose disc bags not to mention her own figure. I like things where the shape is very defined she said. I be always liked the feel of the clothes on my body for example. I Don t like clothes that Are Loose and jewelry too i like to do things that Are Strong and bold and big in  at 300 pieces the new accessories line is enormous. It runs from relatively classic leather bags with heavy Metal chains reminiscent of Chanel to trendy Tri color bags with curl cues resembling Spanish wrought Iron Gates not unlike the fiery detail Christian Lacroix used on sofas in his much photographed showroom. I guess it s the Spanish influence she said. After All i m half Spanish and it s True that Christian s inspiration comes also from Spain because he is from Aries near Spain. In Aries they have the bullfight and he told me he saw me there As a Little girl. He would see me because we she and her father would get All the capes from the  Picasso also created handbags that look like books inspired by a few she picked up in the Library of her Paris apartment that Felt just right purse Wise. They have ribbed leather spines and leather centers stamped Gold to look like pages. In a similar vein Are Large silk scarves printed with the pages of her maternal Grandfather s journal right Down to the Ink and perfume stains. Her Grandfather Emile Gilot was a perfumer in Paris and Picasso recalls that when i was a Little girl every department store you went to there was a Gilot stand with my Grandfather s  As for the Picasso name shoes and hats Are under consideration. Clothes Are out. As for Arianna Huffington s controversial Picasso biography that portrays her father As a cruel sadist she said she does t know if spreading the name around helps business. What s in a name designers will Tell you new York times billion Dollar fashion empires Are no built on the sales of pretty clothes. Nobby a Long  key to major Success in the Industry is licensing an arrangement through which designers lend their names to All kinds of products in Exchange for a percentage of sales. Most of the designer Label products customers see in stores from sportswear to perfumes Are made under a License. But what about the licenses that never were the ones that never made it because the concept was too outrageous Geoffrey Beene for example who holds licenses for apparel of All kinds has turned Down offers to make dog fragrances and dental floss. I m a dog Lover but they smell so Good anyway Beene said. I did t do the floss because it was too Small to put the Label  Bill Blass who has Lent his name to everything from Cologne to Lincoln Continentals rejected designer coffins and orthodontics someone wanted to put the by on braces. Recently Gail Levenstein a vice president and the License director for Bill brass refused an offer to lend the designer s name to condoms. Just How involved designers Are or should be with the designs bearing their names is a subject of some debate. For example Pierre Cardin the acknowledged King of licensing with 605 licenses worldwide cannot be expected to design each item. When Blass had his own line of chocolates made by Godiva his Peers were Quick to criticize. He was t exactly in his Kitchen making fudge but he was very involved with the product Levenstein said. Other food licensing offers followed but the designer declined to do Bill Blass bread and Frozen fruit bars. Donna Karan had a Chance to lend her name to designer clothes for Barbie dolls. If you can see a Barbie in a wrap skirt then i guess that s what we would be done said William Ball the executive vice president of the company. At Perry Ellis International a $300 million business everything is designed in House but manufactured elsewhere according to Claudia Thomas the company s executive vice president. We be said no to chocolates wigs telephones and bicycles Thomas said. Somebody actually or a once wanted to do a Perry Ellis Board  John Weitz whose business is also totally licensed cheerfully accepts blame for being the first american to enter into such deals in the Early 1950s. European houses like Chanel and Lanvin had been doing it for years i be never manufactured Weitz said. I be always made my living with Pencil and  among the concepts Weitz has rejected clothing for Large women police and airline uniforms they wanted to Tell me How to design them and cigarettes i thought it would be immoral. A designer s name lives after him Weitz observed. Christian dior has been dead for 30 years and he still makes More Money than i do he said. My presence you see is not exactly  designer Bill Blass. Not photo a counter display of Revlon products. Not photo inon cosmetics by Joyce m. Rosenberg associated press 14 the stars and stripes monday August 15, 1988 it is no Accident that Many department stores put their cosmetics counters just inside the front door the area with the highest customer  Bloomingdale s redid the first floor of it flagship Manhattan store a few years ago the Centrepiece was the makeup and perfume department. It also is no Accident that the front pages of women s magazines often Are dominated by ads for Revlon Estee Lauder Clairol Coty and other big names in Beauty while inside articles dispense tips on How women can make themselves Over. Cosmetics is a big and lucrative business bringing in $17 billion in sales last year. The world s largest cosmetic company Avon products inc., had 1987 sales of nearly $1.81 billion from its cosmetics fragrances and toiletries. That produced a $251.3 million pre tax profit. Numbers like that make successful cosmetic companies desirable properties. Ronald 0. Perelman battled for three months in 1985 before winning a $1.65 billion takeover fight for Revlon inc., one of the world s top cosmetic manufacturers. The business lately has come under scrutiny by Congress too. The House Small business panel held a hearing to examine health and safety questions about cosmetics some of which Are said to contain chemicals that could cause cancer birth defects Central nervous system disorders skin and Eye irritation and allergic reactions. Cosmetics Are profitable because they Are relatively inexpensive to produce and their prices can be marked up heavily because of snob Appeal. The cosmetic Industry has its equivalent of designer fashions. For example a Mascara by Maybelline was priced at $3 in a Manhattan drugstore while a similar Estee Lauder product sold for $10 at Saks fifth Avenue. Manufacturers and retailers both Are big beneficiaries of makeup s High profit margins. If you pay $10 for an item the manufacturer probably gets $6," leaving $4 for the retailer said Diana Temple a cosmetic Industry analyst for the investment firm Salomon Brothers inc. One reason retailers do so Well from makeup is that at bigger department and specially stores such As Bloomingdale a Marshall Fields Nordstrom and Macy a the people Selling the cosmetics often Are paid at least in part by the manufacturer Temple said. In shopping for cosmetics women generally Are motivated by Price and the image created for the product by and campaigns. If you put the Maybelline Mascara and the Estee Lauder item Side by Side is there any difference in ingredients not a Heck of a lot said Jack Salzman an analyst with the investment firm Goldman Sachs & co. There Are differences in Quality but the differences in Price Are greater Temple said. Cosmetics sell because they can make women More glamorous. But they also have Given the people associated with the Industry their own special Aura. The late Charles Revson one of the founders of Revlon was constantly in the society pages. And actress Lauren Hutton made it into the movies after her impeccably made up face appeared in Many a Revlon and. The stars and stripes Page 15