DKNY Handbags – A Brief History Behind the Name

DKNY stands for “Donna Karan New York” and is an off shoot from the Donna Karan fashion label.

Donna Karen was born in New York, U.S.A. in 1948. Her father was a haberdasher and her mother was a model so it could be said that Donna’s destiny was always likely to be involved in fashion in some shape or form. Not surprisingly, she had an inherent interest in clothes and fashion and when she was old enough went to study at Parsons School of Design in New York where Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford were also trained. Donna left the school to take up a position at the fashion label Anne Klein who at the time were one of the biggest design companies in the country. However, When Anne Klein died in 1974, Donna Karan and Louis Dell’Olio became joint designers for the Anne Klein label.

Nine years later, in 1983, Donna Karan launched a new label called Anne Klein II. It was the first of it’s kind on the American fashion scene as it was the first bridge-line, connecting high quality, fashion led garments to the mass consumer market by reducing the price point to an affordable level. Two years later, Karan felt the time was right to launch her own label and called it “Donna Karan New York”.

The Donna Karan New York label won plaudits from fashion critics and consumers alike. Karan’s clothes were never flashy but rather more modest and more importantly very, wearable. Karan wanted to create a wardrobe staple collection with clothes clothes that were largely interchangeable with each other.

In 1988, Donna Karan launched the “DKNY” label. Donna’s vision was to create a more affordable diffusion line that reflected the New York street fashion style. The label was urban and hip and also became spectacularly successful.

A range of accessories followed from sunglasses to handbags. DKNY handbags are one of the more popular ranges from her accessories line combining practicality with style and cutting edge design.