Laug’s Legacy Is Faithfully Interpreted

When designer Andre Laug died of a heart attack a little more than a year ago, his friends and associates had reason to believe that he had a premonition about his passing: He left behind some 4,000 sketches that could be used for future collections.

Since his death, Laug’s faithful coterie of employees has remained intact in his Rome atelier, and so has the Laug tradition of conservatively stylish, quality clothing.

Laug’s small business in Rome, now presided over by his partner, who goes by the name of Olivier, continues to be run “like a Swiss watch,” says Daniela D’Ercole, who represents the label in the United States.

The Laug team consists of three designers and two former clients, including D’Ercole, working part time at the atelier. For them, preserving the Laug name has become something of a mission. Indeed, the people who have taken on the responsibility are loath to think of the designer as having left them.

“We refuse to think this way,” states dark-haired, simply dressed D’Ercole, who eschews any formal title with the company other than “true friend.”

‘Truly Loved Women’

“He was the only designer who truly loved women,” she explains. “When you wear anything from Andre Laug you are a winner. The world is yours. When he would see one of his customers, he would be so happy and say: ‘You see how beautiful she looks in my things.’ That’s exactly what he wanted.”

D’Ercole says the house designers use Laug’s sketches as a starting point, and then she and others step in to edit.

“We either add things or just say: ‘We don’t think our clients would love this.’ We know them personally, so we know what they expect.”

D’Ercole says such an “interpretation” of Laug’s work is comparable to a concert of Mozart. “Each conductor gives his own interpretation. No conductor is like the other but it’s still Mozart,” she says.

The third of Laug’s posthumous collections, available at Elizabeth Arden in Beverly Hills, was shown recently to the members of the Los Angeles County Museum’s Costume Council. A Laug ensemble was donated to the museum’s costume department.

Hallmark of Collections

The Laug suit, a hallmark of his collections in the past, is still the mainstay of the spring, ready-to-wear collection of about 90 pieces. The newest silhouettes have longer, three-quarter-length jackets in double-face wool and are shown with short skirts and silk blouses. The three pieces are priced from $3,500 to $4,400. Seventy percent of Laug’s sales are in the United States.

D’Ercole says the collection traveled from Rome to Beverly Hills and was shown without pressing. “You can sit on a plane in this wool and you come out perfect. No wrinkles.”

This is convenient for the women who spend the money to wear Laug.

“She’s usually a woman who travels,” including “many ladies of Washington,” Ercole says. “Of course, it’s a rich woman, because the prices are high.”

And typically, the Laug customer also has a mother who wore designer clothes and grew up with an instinct for quality. In other words, D’Ercole adds: “She is somebody who understands.”