Karan << KAR uhn, >> Donna (1948-…), is a leading American fashion designer. Throughout her career, she created clothes primarily for executive businesswomen. Her designs brought a softer femininity to the business wardrobe and a new shaping to traditional tailoring. Karan tried to achieve a total look for her customers, emphasizing accessories such as belts and jewelry. She also designed separates, which are outer garments such as blouses, skirts, and sweaters. She often created separates to be combined over a bodysuit. Karan designed clothes for men and children as well. Her company also produced perfume, and she licensed a number of products with her name, including eyewear, hosiery, and lingerie.
Donna Ivy Faske was born on Oct. 2, 1948, in New York City. In 1968, she joined the fashion house of Anne Klein. There, she collaborated with Louis Dell’Olio in creating the casual but sophisticated separates that gained her acclaim in the fashion world. Faske married clothing retailer Mark Karan in 1970. She divorced Karan and married Stephen Weiss, a painter and sculptor, in 1983, though she kept the last name Karan. Karan started her own company, called the Donna Karan Company, in 1984 and showed her first collection in 1985. In 1988, she launched a less expensive ready-to-wear line called Donna Karan New York (DKNY). Karan later developed clothing for men and children, as well as furniture and other products.
In 2001, Karan sold the American fashion house that she founded, now called Donna Karan International (DKI), to the French luxury conglomerate LVMH, Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. She remained with the fashion house as chief designer until her retirement in 2015. Karan continued as an adviser to DKI while devoting more time to Urban Zen, a nonprofit organization she founded in 2007. In 2016, LVMH sold Donna Karan International, including the Donna Karan and DKNY brands, to the American manufacturing and licensing company G-III Apparel Group.
Karan published an autobiography, The Journey of a Woman, in 2004.
