GARFIELD & MARKS LADIES ROUND COLLAR, SLEEVELESS LUXURY DRESS (MIDI)

PURE ELEGANCE COMFORTABLE A SUMMER STAPLE! BERNIE MARKS In 1993, he started Garfield & Marks, a women’s bridge sportswear collection, with Alex Garfield, and at its peak in the Nineties, the brand was generating more than $60 million in sales. A gregarious executive with an infectious laugh, Marks was a respected business leader, who was self-taught. Born in the Bronx, Marks got his start in the fashion business after serving in the U.S. Army carrying clothing around the garment center, getting sores on his hands from the hangers. He later owned a cutting room in the late 1970s Garfield said he and Marks had a company together in the late 1970s called Joseph Bernard, and years later they decided to launch a new business together. Garfield said he agreed to put up the money, and when they were deciding what to call it, he suggested “Garfield & Marks,” while Marks wanted “Marks & Garfield.” But since Garfield put up the money, he got to put his name first. “Bernie helped me to recognize the most important thing to be is me. ‘Just be you,’ is what he would say. It was all about the product and having fun and luck, and we got lucky,” said Garfield. “People would tell me that I was a great designer, but it’s because of him that we were successful. He led the company and he was the boss,” said Garfield Their biggest account was Nordstrom, which accounted for half the business, and they also sold at Belk and Parisian department stores, as well as 1,100 small specialty stores.