Duke Grows Philosophical Amid Roller-Coaster Times

The dresses covered with giant polka dots and the rhinestoned vintage denims in Randolph Duke’s new resort collection reflect a playfulness that is not only rare for the usually intense designer, but also unusual considering recent circumstances.

Duke, whom good friends call Randy, has had the best and worst of life lately. He’s become as famous as the women he dresses for the Academy Awards, but in two years, the designer has battled as many lawsuits, one coming just a day after his latest Oscar triumph. Hilary Swank, the actress every designer wanted to dress, chose a Duke creation over the dozens she was offered.

Now Duke is trying to parlay his Oscar momentum into a bigger business but lacks the funds to expand, particularly since his last set of backers split. He’s settled his 1998 breach of contract case against Halston, where he helped revive the label and earned the fashion world’s respect before he left the house.

And only recently, he’s become close to his biological father, who is now seriously ill with cancer.

Despite the difficulties, the designer is philosophical and optimistic. And why not? Things are good overall.

He’s become a household word since he began dressing Minnie Driver, Angelina Jolie, Swank and others for their red-carpet appearances two years ago. Just days ago, Neiman Marcus sponsored a huge fashion show for him in his hometown of Las Vegas. The city’s highest rollers joined mentors from his childhood to praise the local boy who’s made good.

His evening sportswear, as he likes to call the collection, is selling well in status stores such as Barneys New York, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman’s, where it’s the store’s top evening wear line. Today, he hosts a trunk show for his resort 2000 collection at the Neiman’s in Beverly Hills.

Tonight he becomes a TV star when “Stylemaker: Randolph Duke” appears on Style, the new network from E! Entertainment. The producers followed the designer for six months to document his life and work.

Duke has learned the hard way that success can bring the risk of exposure. After the Oscars, Maureen Walsh, a former assistant who worked for Duke from December 1998 to March 1999, slapped him with a sexual harassment lawsuit that revealed humiliating details of a penis enlargement operation.

Except for a brief statement that his lawyers released, Duke hasn’t spoken publicly of the charges until now. His lawyers have filed a counterclaim alleging, among other things, theft.

“We think the timing is very transparent in its efforts to defame and discredit us for financial gain on her part,” he said in an interview Wednesday at the Mondrian hotel. “She has a history of suing companies, including Christian Dior, and other employers.” Walsh’s lawyer, Samuel Davis, said the Dior case involved a workers compensation claim. Davis said, “We are very confident that the facts in this case [against Duke] will be proven. . . .”

“My lessons learned from this are that you can’t have people in your inner circle who you don’t know,” he said.

Duke said the case wasn’t a distraction but called the coverage in the press “mean-spirited.”

“I think it is a test of one’s spirit and soul,” said Duke of the lawsuit. “You really learn your lessons in life from the hardships, not the successes. That’s when your strength has to shine. To me, that’s the time you go out and hold your head up high and say I know who I am and what I do. So a girl who worked for me for three months isn’t going to discredit me, nor is she going to get any money from me. Over my dead body!

“The irony is, there’s no money to get!”

The lawsuit churned the rumor mill, threatening the one thing Duke really needs to survive: a financial backer.

“It’s not like overnight, because you dress a celebrity, that 15 people come forward and say, I want to back your business. I would be having a backer right now and I don’t,” he said. “When you make fancy things, people think you have fancy bucks.” The Oscar derby is costly, too. Nearly a dozen of his dresses, some worth $15,000, disappeared after they were offered to actresses this year. And none of the actresses who wore the dresses paid for them, he said.

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Duke recently split from his original backers, Peter and Julianna Holt, owners of the San Antonio Spurs professional basket team. “It was a very amicable parting,” he said. “They wanted to focus on their other businesses. And they weren’t from the fashion business. I really do think that fashion entities need to be backed by fashion entities,” he said. “We are very interested in talking to whoever would be interested in talking to us.”

Duke, who once sold his designs on QVC, said he’s exploring unique ways to expand his brand, possibly by using television, telemarketing and infomercials to help build his business into collections of jeans, swimwear, lingerie and more. He’s just launched a swimwear line within his latest collection, a nod to his swimwear designer beginnings.

And although he’s selling his Laurel Canyon home because it required too much renovation to meet his needs, he’s sold on L.A. He’s still looking for a house to convert into a studio and, if the money comes through, space to open a flagship retail store in L.A.

Even his collections show his affection for the city. It’s full of L.A’s Art Deco motifs and its landscape colors--jacaranda blossom purple, shrimp pink, seashore blue.

“I’m a West Coast person,” said Duke, who has an apartment in New York and a house in the Hamptons. “I’ll take my car with the CD playing to a bumpy New York cab ride any day.”