October 30, 2016
My love of pattern, and fashion was an innate default.
My Hungarian Grandparents built one of Bucharest’s most stylish stores on the elegant Calea Victoriei in the 1930s and 40s. They fled to Santiago Chile after the communist takeover of Rumania to start anew with their daughters Eva and Gabriella.
Here's a picture of my Grandparents stepping out

My mother Eva came to NYC in the late 1950s by way of Santiago, Chile. Married my father Oscar Shapiro, went from fashion model and then to fashion designer and entrepreneur. Eva was a founding partner of Eva for Robert Janan; a company that throughout the 1970s and early 80s, made fashion headlines with what was to become their ubiquitous wrap dress and easy two-piece dressing philosophy. The dresses were in beautiful patterns printed in Como, Italy, at a factory Diane Furstenberg would also come to share. In my teens she'd take me on work trips where I got to see first hand how technicians meticulously monitored the silk screens insuring the pattern and color was being produced to perfection.
Here's a picture of Eva that she used for her hang tag

A typical Eva sketch
Robert Janan Label.
I definitely have the pattern love bug. For a few years before I got married I had toddler line called IZZY. It was sold at Bendels, Saks and Fred Segal in LA.

Here's picture of some little girl tops I found packed away. Bold color, flowers, dots, stripes were and still my thing.

Here's a picture of me and business partner at the time West Murray in our IZZY office.
I LOVE PATTERN!