Mark Eisen: Making His Mark
By: Karen Bressler
Photo below: From the Mark Eisen Fall 1999 collection
Photo by Dino Scrimali; courtesy of FGI

NEW YORK, Jun 15, 1999/ FW/ --- Fashion designer Mark Eisen eats the same meal before every show, carries lucky pearls in his pocket on the runway, and shies away from camera lenses. But now the focus is clearly on him. Here, how the boy from South Africa made it big.

"Quality is about sexuality; being part of a woman’s life in a supportive way and making her feel the best that she can in clothes," says the 37-year-old designer, who is dressed in a three button sweater, a jacket, jeans, boots and sunglasses for our photo shoot. "The success of that is what I enjoy."

Eisen’s worldwide multi-million dollar business which includes couture, menswear, womenswear, shoes and custom-tailored clothes. While womenswear is the focus, a complete menswear line will be launched by the Fall of ‘98. The collection, which Eisen hopes show in Milan, "the center of menswear," will be distributed out of Italy but based in NY.

Mark Eisen talks about his life at Capetown and College Years

For the past eight years, Eisen has been giving women what they want--sleek, clean, sensual style. But he learned a long time ago how to satisfy the demands of fashion when he began his education at home.

As a kid in Cape Town, Eisen had lots of friends with parents in the fashion industry. "One had a shoe factory, another owned a laundry business," he says. "We were close friends and we all wanted to go into business together." Ivan Kavalsky, Eisen’s partner, was one of the bunch. "If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be in business. He’s a smart business man and he frees me up to be creative."

Eisen had the advantage of his mother’s faith in him but the drawback of his father’s suspicion that fashion wasn’t a serious enough career. Despite his talent for all things creative from screen printing to clay sculpting, his father could still not be convinced. At age 18, his father persuaded Eisen to seek out an advanced education and Eisen enrolled in the University of Southern California in the United States in a promising business program. It was there Eisen realized he wanted to pursue a career in fashion and designed a gold and red Trojan army helmet which he sold to fans at football games.

"I started out to make some extra money," says the designer, "and before long I was selling up to 3,000 a week and was mentioned in Newsweek magazine."

So Eisen set out head first into the frenzy of the fashion world, battling such obstacles as the unfortunate mixture of art and commerce, actually being subjected to creative deadlines and a case of camera-shyness which is evident in his quick congratulatory bows at the end of each runway show.

"It’s natural to be nervous for a runway show, I don’t know anyone who isn’t," he admits. "You have to stop your collection and make sure the hair, makeup, music, models, clothes, lights and the audience all come together. You have to grab that moment in time and hold it tightly. It’s an opportunity for expression and before you know it, it’s over."

Eisen admits to feeling just a little bit superstitious about these big moments. "The night before a show, I eat in the same restaurant with the same people at the same table in the same seat and order the same thing, crab meat and thin pasta. I used to carry a friend’s pearls in my pocket on the runway, but then I heard that pearls could be bad luck." [more]

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