Publication: Los Angeles Herald Examiner – Style Section (Page C-1)
Date: Tuesday, July 26, 1983
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Author: Gwen Jones, Herald Fashion Editor
The woman behind his new bodywear
By Gwen Jones
Herald fashion editor
John Travolta‘s dancing duds have spawned more fashion trends than any other star’s in recent memory. First, there was the white polyester three-piece suit he danced in for “Saturday Night Fever.” Then, the ’50s-ish skinny jeans and leather jackets he rock’n’rolled in for “Grease,” followed by the Western outfits he Texas two-stepped in for “Urban Cowboy.”
It wasn’t until the filming of his recently released “Staying Alive,” however, that Travolta decided to cash in on his knack for trend-setting by endorsing his own line of workout wear, called Travolta by Carushka.
“After every film, I was asked to do clothes,” the actor explained at a recent cocktail reception at the Marquis Hotel in Westwood to launch the line. “For the first time, I felt right about it. It feels much more appropriate to do active-wear than, well, white suits.”
Standing at Travolta’s side was his collaborator, Carushka, the queen of designer bodywear, whose high-fashion styles cover the curves of such celebrities as Olivia Newton-John, Lynda Carter, Margot Kidder and Maud Adams.
On the surface, Carushka, with her fuchsia-rinsed hair, pink leopard-print suit, black fishnet stockings and pointy stilettos, and Travolta, with his gray casual jacket, black-and-gray striped shirt and black Lee jeans, appear to be fashion’s odd couple.
Not so, advised the 28-year-old designer who was born Carushka Jarecka in L.A. to a Polish countess; a title the designer is entitled to but rarely uses. “John and I share the same energy,” Carushka claimed, flashing a Mona Lisa smile. “We’re similar in personality. We’re the same age.”
The two got hooked up about six months ago when Travolta asked his dance instructor, Sharee Lane, what she wanted as a present. “Three Carushka outfits,” she promptly replied. He was so impressed with the colorful bodywear that he had his legal advisers research the market potential for a men’s line. Then he approached Carushka, whose $4.5-year-old firm, Carushka Inc., does roughly $15 million in retail sales annually, with the idea.
Carushka, who was considering diversifying her operation, jumped at the opportunity to form a partnership, Cartra, with Travolta. “My kind of contemporary dressing needs the endorsement of a screen idol who has a more macho image.”
Initially, Carushka and Travolta project a modest $3 million in retail sales because they want to expose men gradually to their high-fashion concept. Thus the introductory line was limited to a handful of silhouettes — skin-tight muscle tops, sweat pants, shorts and vests slit to the waist. Everything was designed to hug the limbs of Travolta, a six-footer-plus, whose body, according to Carushka “rates a 10-plus all over.”
For his part, Travolta simply wanted clothes that would “fit the crotch and legs” and be versatile enough to go from the gym to the street. And they do, in comfortable stretch fabrics — cotton lycra and spandex — and in three-color combinations: black-and-white, turquoise-and-white and red-and-white. All are interchangeable.
No doubt the turquoise group and styles in shiny black lycra spandex — a fabric simulating leather — will turn off all but the most adventuresome consumers. And a one-piece leotard in poppy red might make some men blush. Others will probably stick to their cheap old gym shorts rather than sweat in fashions that will cost from $28 to $48 when they turn up in department and specialty stores this October and November.
But then again, Travolta by Carushka is designed for the toned-up muscles of “young-thinking males,” as well as for women, if the reaction at the Marquis was any indication. As the male models who appeared in “Staying Alive” whirled, bumped and gyrated down the runway, the scene grew hotter than “Saturday Night Fever.”
