Thankyou Mr Grayson.  RL worked for and became quite close to Roland and his wife.  He left the store to embark on personal projects, but not on very good terms.

i find the following interesting in light of the fallout the two have had:                              www.madisonavenuenyc.com/ASK/suits01.html . Also I have been told that Meledrandri made the most beautifu courderoy suit you can imagine

marc, the dispute with il pagliacci is all about the benjamins. Have you ever seen a Meledandri garment as I have not and would be curious. By the way in Giovanni's opinion the best dressed man that he worked with was the late Steve Ross ( of Time Warner fame )

hi,
i am nina, Roland's daughter.  marc had written to me asking for any anecdotes, etc. that might be of interest to a forum and i stumbled on the site through my own searches. it is an interesting time for me to find this as i am currently packing up the home and studio i have had for 25 years and needless to say there are a lot of memories resurfacing, especially since at one point (when i was a photographer) i started a book of portraits (with a lot of support from George Lois, the brilliant and famous "ad man" also a client & friend of my father's) of my father's clientele, it's what i am packing up right now...
as i wrote to marc, i am very pleased (and touched) that my father and his influence is still alive and i will try to contribute as long as people are interested.  needless to say the stories & memories are endless and as i am neck deep in boxes i need to stay focused on that project.  but because i am a bit nuts, i am photographing as i pack, so i will try to include some snaps.
I do want to corect one thing, Ralph did not work for my father.  in the beginning he repped a tie company and came to Roland with his product.  i believe my father redesigned some of his ties to be wider and bought them for the store, he and Ralph did become friends.  it is no secret that Ralph has been brilliant at marketing the many influences in his life; from the american west to the english countryside; i will just say that my father was also one of those influences. 
nina

btw, when i was photographing his friends i heard over and over that the garment they still have (though can no longer wear) is their tuxedo's

Thankyou for the insight.

it's not a loss of interest, just that this is a particularly stressful period time-wise and i need to guard against my very unfortunate habit of getting lost on-line. 

In answer to the some things raised:

salon: the store was often thought of that way, it was definitely a gathering place, especially on saturday afternoon's and it tended to attract people connected with the movie & advertising industries (which overlapped quite a bit anyway since many art directors and photographers of that time eventually went into film).  many of the people who hung out at the store would convene later at elaine's.  at some point i will try to post the list i was working from for my book but since that was pre-digital, it will take some time.  off the top of my head, some of the people i photographed were (in no particular order): Dan Melnick, Billy Dee Williams, Mayor John Lindsay, Richard Benjamin, Richard Meier, George Lois, Noel Behn, Carmen Capalbo, George Segal, Joel Schumacher, David Susskind, Art Kane, Steve Horn, David Z. Goodman.

my memories: well, i certainly don't have an adult perspective, the time i spent in the store was mostly during high school but i did spend a lot of time there.  it was a very comfortable place for me which is a bit surprising since i was an extremely shy kid and it was such a social environment.  i think what attracted me to it was that my father was so in his element there, he really had an incredible sense of style and here he was surrounded by people who not only appreciated his clothes but relied on his eye.  in some ways his interaction with his clients was like a performance, not that it was contrived or in any way disingenuous  but in the sense that it drew you in, watching him oversee a fitting and then accessorize the suit seemed like magic to me

designer/tailor: it is true that my father was a designer not a tailor nor did he have any training in that craft. but he intuitively understood clothing and what made a successful garment.  he could look at a pattern and know what was wrong with it and he was a total perfectionist when it came to the finished product, something that i think was particularly important to his clientele.  his expression manifested itself not only in the style and fit of his clothes (the proportions) but also in his choice and combinations of colors and textures.

photos: when i get to packing that box, i will try photographing the prints, again none of this is digitalized and unfortunately nobody was wearing his clothes for the photos i took (i didn't start the project until a few years after he died).  also i will try to shoot some of the press clippings that i have

it is actually easier for me to answer questions or comment on things raised here, since my recollections are going to run the gambit of (somewhat) objective to highly subjective.

one (possibly) little known fact: my father loved shoes and could not refrain from buying them for the store even though he always lost money on them.  he would often say of a shoe that it was "so ugly it was beautiful".

Last edited by neene (2006-05-27 20:22:29)

these 2 garments were made for the Coty's, the men's fashion awards.  i believe joel grey modeled one of them and bobby banks who was the store's manager had modeled the other.  i wear both the jacket and the coat.  the suit was never completely finished for the show which is why the vest might look abit strange.  he did receive the award for one of these years, haven't gotten to that box yet

it is strange but most of the clothes that i have were made for my mother: some beautiful reefer coats with skirts, a long green velvet coat/dress with pants, a very fitted full skirted dress coat...

Last edited by neene (2006-06-04 13:59:35)

@ vaclav
thanks

Neene: great pictures of some very beautiful clothing. That top piece is amazing, l could spend alot of time looking at that dress.

Ronny.

Im fascinated by all of this but at the risk of sounding out of the loop can you guys, Neene and Marc,  sort of tell us the Meledandri story? I think some of us who were unaware or too young might appreciate some summary of how he fits into things artistic and sartorial.

Neene, those really are some elegant clothes.