AS TOLD BY DONNA: From her Woodmere, N.Y., upbringing to the time at Anne Klein, the launch of her own brand with Seven Easy Pieces, followed by DKNY and the sale to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Donna Karan clearly has a few stories up her sartorial sleeve. Thus, she is now starting to work on her memoir, which was just acquired by Ballantine Bantam Dell, an imprint of Random House.
“As I look back and reflect on my journey, I see how one chapter led to another, how something ended and something else began,” Karan said. “I’m very excited to share my story.
“Our lives are guided by what happens to us, and we choose which roads to take,” she added. “I was born into fashion. My father, a tailor, died, and that led me to Seventh Avenue. My mentor Anne Klein died, and I was named her successor — and at the same time, I became a mother. Ten years later, when I left Anne Klein, my husband Stephan [Weiss] and I launched Donna Karan and DKNY. Later, Stephan’s illness and death led me to create Urban Zen.”
Jennifer Tung, vice president, editorial director of nonfiction at Ballantine, and Alina Cho, editor-at-large, will edit the project, which is projected to be ready next year.
“Donna Karan has had a singular influence on women and their evolving place in the world,” said Ballantine Bantam Dell executive vice president and publisher Libby McGuire. “The story of her fashion career, interwoven with her emotional and inner journeys as a young woman, wife, mother, grandmother, spiritual seeker and now philanthropist, embodies the essence of creativity, authenticity and purpose.”