Zack Carr

As the creative director of Calvin Klein, where he worked for nearly three decades, Zack Carr helped develop the house into one of the premier forces in fashion worldwide. His premature death from cancer in 2000 cut short a life and career that indelibly altered the status of American fashion, and in the process more than any other helped stamp it "The Look" and "Lifestyle" to which so many across the globe aspire.

As a tribute to Carr's life and legacy, his brother George Carr and famed designer Sam Shahid have compiled an exquisite collection of photographs, sketches, and selected writings that make Zack Carr an indispensable reference volume for aestheticians and people of taste, whether town or country. Born and raised in Kerriville, Texas, Carr began his career working for B. Altman & Co. and manufacturer Donald Brooks before joining Calvin Klein in the early 70s. He left Klein in 1984 to launch his own company, the Zack Carr Collection, but returned in 1988 where he worked until being diagnosed with POEMS Syndrome, a rare paralyzing blood cancer. Despite the illness, Carr continued to create, and, as the paralysis spread through his body, had to reteach himself how to draw.

In his sketchbooks, Carr would paste cut-outs of his sketches, his "dolls" as he called them, alongside his inspirations—a Horst postcard here, a paparazzi snap of Carolyn Bessette there. Carr considered his sketchbooks to be "what I consider a true expression of myself...my being...what interests me, what excites me, what is me...and what is my true being." Zack Carr is a splendid journey to that somewhere, taking us on a tour of his world inhabited by many muses (Balenciaga, Chanel, Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy), friends (Marina Schiano, Gwyneth Paltrow), and inspiration found in the form of art itself.

George Carr graduated from the University of Texas before moving to New York and working at Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. He left fashion to pursue a career in acting and writing, and has written two plays and a screenplay, Zack Carr is his first book.