Designs Reflect the Good Things of Life

Nancy Johnson calls herself a product of ‘60s turmoil and change. But no one can live like that forever. These days, the L.A.-born designer creates fashions that look like a blueprint of ‘80s values: affluent, nostalgic and feminine--a bit like Johnson herself.

And though she trekked the world following her college years to take in other cultures, the culture Johnson absorbs most now is the good life--whether it be a lawn party in India or a weekend at a desert spa.

‘A Romantic’

“I’m a romantic. I think most women are, in their secret souls,” Johnson, 43, says. “Who doesn’t watch the late movies and say: ‘Look at that dress’? The daytime pales by comparison.”

Over tea at Bullocks Wilshire recently, Johnson said her design perspective is tied to history, which was her subject as a student at UC Santa Barbara.

“Fashion has cycles and phases--and I’m attracted to all of them,” she says. “The tea dances of the ‘30s. The extravagant evenings of the ‘40s. Dior’s new look.”

But when she started her business 17 years ago, the Johnson look was strictly 1960s: She made the kind of peasant skirts and the ethnic styles that were popular on college campuses. As a novice, she says: “I didn’t know you had to make seasons or that colors change.” Over time, however, the L.A.-based business grew to about $35 million in sales a year, according to the designer.

For spring, Johnson shows her obsession with variety, making calf-length knit dresses, ballet skirts with cropped tops, georgette tea dresses, and structured suits.

“I don’t like to be hemmed in, presenting just one look,” she says.

Two Homes

She also doesn’t like to be hemmed in by geography. She keeps a home in the Los Feliz area and a town house in New York.

“California thinks only of itself. And New York thinks everything but Manhattan is a province,” she says. She draws varied fashion inspiration from the two states, from the relaxed California mode to season-conscious New York.

Johnson’s fashion sense, which over the years has proved in sync with her generation, detects a new fashion mood among women.

“Knits have been the revolution of the ‘80s,” Johnson concedes, “but in the late ‘80s, there’s going to be a return to marvelous, structured, elegant clothes.”