The clothes never quite dazzled-not even the eveningwear took chances. But neither did the collection disappoint as Robinson tried his hand at everything from the ubiquitous Jackie 0 sheath to leather suits to classic sweater sets. “Now, this looks like Anne Klein,” enthused model agent Bethann Hardison. In a season in which fashion has turned to ’60s-style Mod, some criticized Robinson for being commercial. But he insists he didn’t want Son of Armani or Tyler 11. “It’s not about getting press,” says Robinson, who displays uncommon cool in an industry that operates with an end-of-the-world mentality. “It’s about selling clothes.”
Indeed, for all Tyler’s daring, customers stayed away-in droves. Many felt his long and-lean designs were better suited to the Hollywood rails who wear his namesake label than the older, more rounded lawyers and executives who buy Anne Klein’s $900 jackets. “Patrick understands the Anne Klein customer,” says Bloomingdale’s senior vice president Kalman Ruttenstein. “He just needs a few more collections. " Robinson isn’t in any rush. As he proved at Armani, few are better at turning basic sportswear into hot fashion.
