It was the Plaza Hotel, in New York, where every year I showed my Cardinali Couture Collection to the Buyers of all the swank shops and stores and did the Big runway show to the ‘Country Press run by Eleanor Lambert. Let Me tell you, those days were nerve wracking, as I wrote in my book, “Marilyn are you sure you can cook,” He asked?
Smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, and needing a bit of a snooty old world respite, I would slip into the Oak Room for a 5 o’clocker... Who wouldn’t want to slip into the Oak Room with a fine chilled J&B waiting for you at your table… and all those good looking MAD MEN looking like all those Jon Hams, in their whiter than white starched shirts, (which they kept layered for the ready, in their desk drawers).
Defining the dress code of the Gents, that was easy….BUT OH, THE DRESS CODE for women…that was serious. Pant suits were just coming in big and the Maitre’D would have none of it. It was here, at the Plaza Hotel, with all the Management taking notes, that I rewrote their dress code with sketches and fabric swatches, as I tried to educate those huffy puffed-up doormen.
I explained carefully to them that they must never allow entrance, if the fabric on the pant suit was the least bit shiny…like Polyester…that was a no no. They liked that, since it left them with some power… Imagine having to make sketches of what a woman could wear to a doorman... Who were we trying please here in this Boys Club of the Oak Room? Why the Mad Men of course! Only linen darling... or flat dry wool or men's tweeds... Oh dear...
Celanese fabric was just born and some handsome “Mad Man” called to see if I, Cardinali the designer would endorse it and design something wonderful with this synthetic fabric. In turn, they would give me several pages in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar in the late 60’s
I thought about it and finally decided it would not be a good match for me...that I shouldn't be associated with a synthetic...for many years, I was not sure I was right, and now, 40 years later, I know I was... it probably was not biodegradable.