JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Cherise Thomson models a Cynthia Steffe ensemble.

Success didn’t come
easy for Steffe

But the designer never lost
the sense of fun that marks
each of her collections

It's easy to be envious of fashion power couple Cynthia Steffe and Richard Roberts, who have the perfect personal and working relationship, as wife and husband, and with her as the designer and him as the president of the company that bears her name.

But that's before considering the 16 years that went into building Steffe's name, and that a recent 10-day trip to Hawaii was their first vacation in many years.

"I went to the birthday party of a good friend who lives in Diamond Head. I've gone to the pool, I've gone to the beach, I've gone to the pool, I've gone to the beach. I just relaxed," said Steffe, who also managed to work in phone calls to her New York office every morning, and visits to Neiman Marcus for the setup and staging of an informal fashion show Wednesday evening.

Steffe's known for her relaxed designs, incorporating playful, whimsical details such as velvet ribbons, embroidery, jewels or lace details. Her spring collection captures the bohemian spirit of "a rich hippie heiress traveling through Morocco," with jewels crocheted into or sewn onto the clothes, coins dangling from hemlines and fabric dyed to match the earthy colors of the desert.

"You're not going to find a basic with us."

And the women at the fashion show were buying. Not bad for a day's work, considering Steffe never envisioned seeing her name on a label.

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Ava Rose wears a one-of-a-kind dress created by her mom, designer Cynthia Steffe, from the confetti Jacquard used in her spring collection.

"It was an evolution," she said. "I went to school for design, but I didn't see myself as having my own line."

She considers herself lucky to have had a role model and mentor in Donna Karan, who she worked for at Anne Klein in the early '80s.

"I learned a tremendous amount and found it was very inspiring. That's when I thought, 'I think I can do this.' "

Steffe put in another five years at another company before stepping out on her own, with what turned out to be the last of the public funding available to fashion startups when the stock market crashed in the late '80s.

"Our first five or six years were really difficult. It was a treacherous time for a young designer to enter the market. Saks closed. Macy's and Bloomingdale's filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

"My husband ran companies before apparel companies. He was at Calvin Klein and Alexander Julian and we'd joke, 'We made all this money for other companies and just when we try to do it for ourselves, the economy tanked.' "

She recalls many restless nights when, still awake at 5 a.m., she'd nudge her husband awake and say, "Let's go to work!"

They never had a Plan B.

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Ying Ying wears a gauzy top by Cynthia Steffe accented with peacock-colored stones, paired with brocade pants.

"When you're in it, failure doesn't seem to be an option," she said. "It was going to be survival so we had to find a way to make things work."

Which all serves to make her current success all the more sweet.

"About four years ago, the economy started to turn. Stores started turning their attention again to exciting clothes. Before then, they were buying conservatively. The clothes were disappointing, they were not exciting.

"I saw the emergence of young fashion. Today, the approach to dressing is very different. Women seem ageless, so collections seem to be ageless.

"My designs appeal to teens and their mothers, who might wear them a different way or the same way, and grandmothers can wear them also if they're in good shape and have a young attitude."

At the Kahala Mandarin, where she was staying, she was pleased to see her garments worn in different venues, such as a sundress worn to a wedding, and a couple of her skirts paired with swimsuits.

"I enjoy seeing how people put things together. I'll be thinking of these women when I go home. It's always interesting to talk to women and see what their needs are, and I keep them in mind when I work because you can't be in a box and design and not consider the market."

Last fall's TV fashion competition "Project Runway," that aired earlier this year on Bravo, offered young designers a faster route to success, but Steffe said she probably would not have attempted to take that route if it had been open to her when she started.

"I caught only 15 minutes of that, so I'm not a good person to comment on the show, but it seemed unrealistic (i.e. designing and sewing a swimsuit in five hours). I know the amount of time it takes.

"In this business, some of the best designers aren't the best pattern makers, and some of the best pattern makers aren't the best designers," she said. "I have knowledge of it all. I went to Parsons. I got a good, well-rounded education covering pattern making, fashion illustration and the creative aspects, but would I subject myself to public scrutiny like that? I don't think so."

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Cassandra Eaton wears a saffron sundress trimmed with jewels, from Cynthia Steffe. Separates at NM run about $140 to $350.