Normali Kamali: Always Way Ahead of the Fashion Pack

Norma Kamali participating in a weekly tai chi session with her staff in Central Park. The designer is just as disciplined, and flexible, in her approach to her work. Todd Heisler/The New York TimesNorma Kamali has always been an adventurous, pioneer Smart Sensuality designer.  One of the ultimate ‘trouser girls’,  Kamali made jumpsuits sexy and never looked back — although she has ridden that infamous retail fame and fortune elevator more than once.

Norma Kamali has always been a fashion innovatorKamali, now 63,  hooked up with Apple’s Soho store today, showing her Spring 2010 collections to just about anybody who was browsing laptops.  There were no bodyguards, no sniffy editors unhappy with their seat assignments.

The forever-talented designer led a talk called “The Democratization of Fashion: How Technology Is Transforming Fashion.”

As for the clothes — well they were displayed on the street. Talk about fashion democracy in action!

Norma Kamali is determined to make shopping as easy as eating techno pie, selling her clothes with Apple apps, launching an eBay collection — along with Narciso Rodriguez (See RedTracker), and designing this summer a collection for Walmart.

Creating career-wear and activewear for $20 or less is a pricing strategy that seriously undercuts Vera Wang for Kohl’s or Matthew Williamson for H&M. But then, Kamali’s clothes must compete with Target’s designer offerings.

The NYTimes did a feature on Norma Kamali last spring, making it clear that looks can be deceiving in interpreting how Norma Kamali behaves in business.

She’s had run-ins with the union, paid her fine and moved her production to Italy.  Two years ago, after finding herself in a pricing dispute with a licensee Everlast (Kamali wanted to go lower), she severed relations.

If it seems that it’s Norma’s way or the highway, that may be correct. For three decades Norma Kamali’s been ahead of the pack and even today, she’s moving at warp speed. Anne

Norma Kamali showed her Spring 2010 collection in front of the Apple store in Soho

Update on Thu, April 8, 2010 by Anne

We just posted on Private Eye about Norma Kamali’s Wellness Cafe where she shares all her secrets for staying ageless, slim, healthy and we’ll add ‘happy’.