Fashion 88 : New Talent: This Planet Has a Couple of Rising Stars
They tell you they design clothes, not costumes. But then you look at their newest styles. The tank top with the little pleated skirt could be Victorian beachwear, and the duster coat belongs behind the wheel of a roadster.
These are among the latest fashion additions to the Planet collection, a company not quite 2 years old. Designers Doreen Dempski, 25, and Patricia Burke, 29, call their look “period romantic,” and it’s turned out to be a winner.
Perky Young Team
Already the perky young team claims sales receipts of more than $1 million a year, and during their first year in business, the California Mart listed them among Los Angeles’ rising stars of fashion. These days their label seems to be the darling of stylish boutiques as well as big chain stores in Los Angeles and New York--Nordstrom and Macy’s among them.
“We have a romantic attitude about fashion, but we like simple styles,” says Dempski to explain Planet’s appeal. Along with Victorian shapes, Dempski says, collections are drawn from the willowy, low-waisted looks of the ‘20s. For a soft silhouette, everything is made of rayon or linen.
Dempski started the company after adventures in acting school, photography class and movie-production work. To launch it, she says, she naively asked her friend David Goldberg to lend her $10,000.
“A quarter of a million dollars later we shipped our first collection,” she says.
Dempski, a bundle of energy with curly red hair, makes quite a contrast to Burke, her shy and low-key partner. The two met when Burke answered a want ad in the Otis/Parsons fashion-design school newspaper. By then she had a diploma from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology and had worked as an assistant to Eleanor P Brenner, the New York sportswear designer.
Like so many innovative Los Angeles companies, this one began in the founder’s kitchen. But Planet relocated to Little Tokyo recently when a Japanese businessman, who owns a San Pedro Street building, agreed to lease the company space despite their limited budget; according to Dempski, the businessman even provided funds to renovate their second-floor offices.
Witty Illustrations
Dempski and Burke design for women who want to look elegant without spending a lot of money. “We’re reacting against overdone fashion,” Burke says. “Most people ask: ‘What can we add to our clothes?’ We ask: ‘What can we take away?’ ”
She shapes Planet’s corporate image through advertising and public relations, and she still makes the company’s witty fashion illustrations, yet she is considered the more serious-minded and practical part of the team.
To bring home that point, Dempski says: “Patty’s the one who tells me nobody will buy it,” referring to Dempski’s unconventional fashion ideas.
The two may keep a limit on the number of outre items in their collections, but they still plan to show a fall ’88 line that is double the size of last year’s.
And there are hats to go with the clothes. Designer Lori Henle, who has designed under her own Il Tetto label, joined the Planet group last winter. Now she makes classically romantic hats especially for the Planet collections. But she says she will continue working with other Los Angeles designers, including Bonnie Strauss, Glenn Williams and Nancy Johnson.
