As designer fashion job

Tracy Reese - profile of fashion designer

Spotlights, camera, action! One of the electrifying highlights of the New York collections was under way: the fall showing by Tracy Reese of Magaschoni at the prestigious Parsons School of Design. Her ever-so-wearable working clothes in rust-toned leathers, knits and wools--embellished with the most romantic embroidery and ruffles--were strutted down the run-way on the likes of hot mannequins Tyra, Veronica Webb, Kimora and Loraine Pascale (to name a few) with soft new attitude! And one thing was clear from the enthusiastic response her freshly tailored style (priced from $70 to $500, retail) received: A collection with clout had been unveiled, signaling an important change for use on the fashion scene.

At 29, with three major (and we do mean major) showings under her belt, Reese, a sister who heals from Motown Detroit, takes her place among New York's young "designing darlings." It's a spot that suits her well. Inside the elegant beige-on-beige showroom that houses the five-year-old sportswear company Magaschoni (owned by Magdalena Lee, who's based in Hong Kong, where the clothing is manufactured), the soft-spoken Reese is funkily clad in all black--peg-leg jeans and her own double-breasted fitted crepe blazer with two-tiered ruffled trim and penny loafers. Buyers from Neiman Marcus and high-profile specialty stores (Magaschoni's core clients) are lining the tables--penning orders that will add up to between $3 million and $5 million in the annual sales that Reese's label now generates for the company.

When Reese joined the company three years ago, however, her duties consisted of merely designing an existing ("and boring") bridge collection. "It was definitely not my style, but I knew this was the kind of company that could provide me with major backing of my own label," explains Reese. She couldn't have been more right.

Not surprisingly, her seven-year journey into the spotlight has been fraught with fashion lessons learned the hard way--by running her own self-titled contemporary-sportswear firm from 1987 to 1989, started with a $100,000 backing from her dad, Claude. She founded the company after working as a designer's assistant at Arlequin--her first job fresh out of Parsons with her design degree. Sadly, Tracy Reese Designs suffered from all-too-common malaise striking many smaller Seventh Avenue firms of "too many orders and not enough capital to handle them."

Teary-eyed but still determined to designed clothes "with passion," Resse closed her doors and moved on as designer of the Perry Ellis Portfolio line. A few months later, however, the division closed. Reese rebounded and quickly hooked up with noted sportswear designer Gordon Henderson, working as a consultant for three months before joining Magaschoni. She muses, "Gordon is like my big brother. He taught me so much about succeeding in this business."

Reese's "passion for fashion" began back home in Detroit when she was merely a talented 10-year-old living with her modern-dance teacher mom, managerial dad and two sisters. "Mom and I would have sewing contests to see who finished their outfit first. The loser had to buy fabric!" Reese recalls. "Although I generally won, I still spent every dime I had buying fabric." But, she says, it wasn't until her days at Cass Technical High School, where she was encouraged to apply for a scholarship, which she won, to Parsons that she saw designing clothes as a business. "That's when I knew I wanted to be involved in every aspect of this business, not just stuck in some back room sketching and draping for days!"