REGINA SCHRECKER AS SEEN THROUGH ANDY WARHOL’S EYES

Following years in which Regina moved from working as a stylist to becoming a fashion and design “freelancer,” the Regina Schrecker signature label was inaugurated early in 1980. Her label’s new designs, a fashion-expression complete in every aspect, were immediately recognized as symbolic of a revolutionary, even trend-bucking lifestyle, mean to be worn by those who not only wanted to appear to be themselves, but who demanded of life to be able to do so.

Regina’s first venue was in Piazza Antinori in Florence, but growing space needs took her to the suburb of Sesto Fiorentino after only a few months, and to a thoroughly modern studio and showroom. Dreams were born there; and it was there that Regina’s ornate fabrics, often in animal prints, were sewn. Here were found her sophisticated passementerie, her jewel-buttons, and her electrifying accessories. It was here that she chose her soft fancy yarns and suedes in savage prints. It was there that Regina studied the astonishing effects that could be produced by pairing materials of very different kinds; it was there where she “tossed out” the very first concepts for the upcoming season and drew up rough sketches, design drafts, and tech sheets. It was there where the collection’s first prototypes were made, to be then entrusted for production to the hands of her faithful contract manufacturers, talented artisans and artists in Tuscany, Umbria, and the Marche.

As the Regina Schrecker label grew in importance, toward the end of the 1980s Regina chose to move in the direction of close collaborations with important fashion-sector companies and to take a chance on a new method of granting licenses for the use of her label (at the time a complete novelty in the fashion world). She moved her workshop and studios back to Florence and into a splendid Renaissance-era palazzo.

From its very origins, the Regina Schrecker label was a contemporary expression of a chic, sporty approach to design. Regina Schrecker designs challenge conformity even as they remain steeped in intimations of age-old traditions. Hers is a total approach to fashion—clothing, accessories, home luxury items—intended for special men and women, on the cutting-edge of fashion, international, open, and sophisticated.