Vintage Fashions Back in Vogue : The Whimsical Retro Clothes of Orange County Designer Holly Sharp Finally Find a Receptive Public

For years fashion designer Holly Sharp has been a woman out of time.

She talks about her favorite black and white movies from the ‘40s as if they had been released yesterday. Her screen idol isn’t “Pretty Woman” Julia Roberts but Audrey Hepburn.

She watches reruns of television shows from the ‘60s just to admire the colorful costumes worn by Barbara Feldon as Agent 99 in “Get Smart” and Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stevens in “Bewitched.”

“I sit there and watch old TV shows on Nick at Nite, and I love it,” Sharp says.

Nowhere is her taste for glamorous, vintage styles more apparent than her own Holly Sharp designs.

This spring, her boxy little chemises, swing jackets and blouses with floppy round collars all pay homage to the past without copying the old styles line for line.

Until recently, many in the fashion industry considered Sharp’s retro clothes too forward.

“In the ‘80s, when everyone was into suits and sportswear, we were pounding the pavement with our sharp little dresses,” she says. “If you look to my favorite eras, there weren’t a lot of pants. Women wore dresses with matching shoes and purses.”

The ‘80s woman had become “too practical,” with her tailored jackets and pantsuits, Sharp says.

At last the fashion world has caught up with Sharp.

Fashion observers from Vogue and Women’s Wear Daily have proclaimed that the ‘60s are back, and so is the dress. For Sharp, it’s perfect timing.

“All of us want our moment,” she says. “This is definitely an exciting time.”

In her spacious Costa Mesa office overlooking oil wells and a patch of ocean, Sharp opens the current issue of People magazine she has sitting on a table.

Inside, there’s a picture of her “Doris Day” dress, side by side with an old photograph of Hepburn in a similarly styled chemise. Sharp’s dress is a square-shaped, pink chemise, very short, with a gift box bias and a white bow in front.

“The dress looks like a wrapped present,” she says.

With a war on and a recession threatening, Sharp has found people more receptive to her whimsical designs.

“Somewhere in the ‘80s, we lost our sense of whimsy. Holly’s bringing it back,” says her husband, Michael Sharp, chief executive officer of Sharp Designs.

“We need fun,” Holly Sharp adds.

That’s why the pieces in her spring collection are decorated with bold polka dots and big daisies.

There’s a white miniskirt appliqued with black daisies and a coordinating blouse of filmy black rayon with big white daisies. She has also created an oversized white blouse with three huge black polka dots down the front, and a black and white spotted jumpsuit with a matching sheer blouse.

“It’s happy and fun,” she says. “The contrast of the black and white just pops.”

On this day, Sharp is wearing her swing jacket in banana yellow wool crepe with a contrasting 6-inch black border, and a short black chemise underneath. Her taste for dramatic clothes stems from childhood.

Sharp, 32, grew up watching old movies. She loved how designers such as Edith Head would create a distinctive, glamorous look for stars.

“They wanted the film stars to be anything but ordinary,” Sharp says.

Her mother, a tailor, made all of her clothes and taught her to sew.

“I was brought up in a tailor atmosphere,” she says.

Her brother, Shawn Stussy, is owner/designer of Stussy, an Irvine-based sportswear company.

Sharp was making custom clothes at home when a sales representative took her collection to show buyers for Bullock’s in Los Angeles.

“They decided, ‘This looks really fresh’ and bought $50,000 worth of merchandise. We took it from there.”

She and Michael formed Sharp Designs in July, 1984. They have showrooms in Los Angeles and New York but set up shop near her native Newport Beach because of “the quality of the workday.”

“Everyone thought we’d be a surf-wear company because we were down in Orange County,” Sharp says.

Last year Sharp Designs cleared $4 million in sales, and 1991 promises to be even stronger, given the ‘60s revival.

Although the company produces all of its textiles and garments in the United States, Sharp keeps away from the manufacturing end of the business.

“My forte is design,” she says.

Sharp produces 36 collections a year. She does most of her sketching at home at night, but throughout the day she draws ideas on note paper, matchbook covers and napkins--anything that’s handy.

When she works on a collection, the first question she asks herself is not, “Will it sell?” but rather, “Is this fun enough?”

“They’re things I want to wear,” she says. “I’m real emotionally attached. I use myself as my average consumer. I ask, ‘Do I want that? Do I need that? Can I buy it at The Limited?’ ”

She calls her clothes by name, such as the Doris Day or the Josephina.

“I don’t know style numbers at all,” she says.

Her refusal to mass-produce garments leaves her vulnerable to copycats, who can churn out her designs six to nine months after she shows them.

“It can kill your spirit that the big manufacturers are so quick to steal your ideas. But I’m prolific enough that there will be 25 ideas right behind that one.”

To demonstrate, she pulls out a scrapbook filled with page after page of her tiny sketches, as well as pictures from magazines and bits of fabric and trim that inspire her collections. She has filled five other books like this one.

Sharp attracted attention and a host of imitators with her short and sheer baby doll dresses.

“We showed it on the runway 2 1/2 years ago. A year later, retailers came in and picked it up. Then big manufacturers started pumping them out by the thousands. At that point, I became uninterested. It helped my name, but you won’t find a baby doll in any of my new collections.”

When it comes to salesmanship, Sharp again appears out of step with her contemporaries.

“A lot of designers try to get as much money as possible out of each piece.”

She maintains there’s not enough high fashion in between mass-produced clothes and costly couture. She tries to bridge the gap, selling her designs for $50 to $250. Her blouses retail for $60 to $100, and dresses for $85 to $225.

“When you buy a dress or blouse from me, it’s not a big investment,” she says. “I’m the furthest thing from a fashion snob. I discourage customers from spending hundreds of thousands on their wardrobes.”

Sharp’s designs are carried by The Look, The Limited, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bullock’s, Nordstrom, Ann Taylor and Macy’s. Celebrities such as Sin e ad O’Connor, Lisa Bonet and Kirstie Alley have sported her creations. With their whimsical daisies and dots, these clothes are not for shrinking violets.

“We’re not doing the solemn business suits,” Sharp says. “Our clothes are for days when you want to shout.”