Akris’ 90th Anniversary Week

Last week, Akris celebrated its 90th anniversary in the style one would expect from the famed, Swiss-based fashion house – with a host of festive events.  On Tuesday, Akris owner/creative director Albert Kriemler and Bergdorf Goodman’s Linda Fargo welcomed a chic group of friends and editors for cocktails and canapes at BG restaurant to toast the publication of Assouline’s “Akris,” by Valerie Steele (www.assouline.com).  Jennifer Creel, Chris Mack, Francesco Clark, Jack Yeaton, and Melissa Beste (CEO of Akris USA) were among the many notables who came out in support and did some last minute catching up before the long weekend.

Steele is nothing if not a veteran of the fashion industry: as director and chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (MFIT), she has curated more than 20 exhibitions in the past 10 years.  Even so, she did encounter some surprises in her research for the book (which she worked on for just under a year).  “I had no idea of the extent that technology factored into his designs,” she told AVENUEinsider.  “It is amazing, futuristic technology – like something out of science fiction.” Akris’s legacy, she continued, is its “philosophy, and how singularly [Kriemler] has focused on the modern woman and her needs, and has responded to that in a very direct way.”

That talent was on full display two evenings later, when Akris staged a runway show (in partnership with Neue Gallerie) of its fall/winter 2012 collection at Saks.  Saks CEO Steve Sadove attended with his wife, Karen, and as each model sauntered down the runway, the workmanship, architectural approach, and fine tailoring were evident.  After the show – and a few post-cocktails, natch – a small group headed uptown to The Crown to cap off the evening, and toast to the next 90 years.