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¶ Britta Bauer, 29, German born and educated, was a model with no business experience when she started Cinnamon Wear in 1972. She and her partner Barry Lis, 31, have had a phenomenal success by breaking all the rules. Britta and Barry rarely advertise or hold shows, and carry basically the same clothes season after season. Reasons Bauer: "Often people will see something they like in a store, buy one, and go back for more of the same—only they can't get it. We like to give women a chance to come back and get what they like." Britta believes that "clothes should be fun"; and her sporty coats, pants and jackets bear her out. Cinnamon Wearers paid an average $30 a garment for a total of $10 million last year.
It is only in the past decade or so that U.S. designers have become celebrities in their own right. With a few exceptions, like the late Norman Norell and the late Claire McCardell, most designers used to work semianonymously for manufacturers. Today, says June Weir, fashion editor of Women's Wear Daily, "customers are much more designer-conscious. So when a customer walks into a store, she's heard of Bill Blass, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein and is willing to pay a little extra to be able to say she is wearing designer clothes."
Still, getting to the top and staying there is not, so to speak, for pantywaists. U.S. fashion is a $12 billion cottage industry; in the past two years, more than two dozen major U.S. garment manufacturers have folded. The rag trade is still much as Jerome Weidman pictured it in his 1937 novel I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Conspiracy, espionage and piracy are all part of the game. Even before a top designer comes out with a hot new look, his rivals are apt to be running off Chinese copies that will retail for perhaps half the price of the original.
Nonetheless, Seventh Avenue—part commodity market, part cloud-cuckoo land—is one of few remaining arenas where the bright, the brave—and the lucky—can win fame and fortune. Deservedly so, because of all businessmen and women in the U.S., few return so much to the consumer in pleasure and selfesteem. The point was made last week at a much ballyhooed Salute to U.S. Fashion in Washington's Kennedy Center. Few of the honored designers were on hand to acknowledge the encomiums, however. Calvin and Oscar and Mary and Adolfo and Halston were all on the road. The real tribute was on the backs of the guests. Almost without exception, they were dressed by Seventh, make that Fashion, Avenue.
* Among them: Marisa Berenson, Carol Charming, Mrs. Gianni Agnelli, Mrs. Vincent Astor, Lauren Bacall, Raquel Welch, Ali MacGraw, Mrs. William Mc-Cormick Blair Jr., Mrs. Charles Revson, Liza Minnelli, Lee Radziwill and her sister Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who, at her first husband's inauguration, wore a Halston's pillbox hat—backward. Despite Jackie's mistake, the hat became a rage and helped make Halston famous.