(Donald J and Lisa F Pliner)
It’s a rollercoaster of a story, filled with glamourous highs, crushing lows, and enough drama for a major motion picture—and it all happened to Donald J. Pliner. The iconic designer’s fascinating life story is chronicled in the new book Donald J Pliner: The Selling of One’s Sole, written by R. Scott French and Vivian Kelly with ample input from Pliner; his wife, Lisa; and numerous others who played key roles in his inimitable career. (To order a copy, go to https://thefashionlist.com/shop/)
Below, Pliner shares reflections from a life in footwear—along with some words of hard-earned wisdom.
1) What will surprise readers most about your story?
I think a lot of people will be surprised to know that I’m a real person. I grew up in the shoe world. My father was in the retail shoe business in my hometown of Chicago. Growing up surrounded by the business made me who I am. This book is a story about a person who fell in love with shoes and spent his life bringing that passion to others around the world.
2) What or who prompted you to share your story?
Scott French was producing my wife Lisa’s podcast Lisa F Pliner: Over 40 & Loving Every Minute of It during the pandemic. One week, a guest canceled because they got Covid. We already had the studio booked, so Scott suggested Lisa interview me. As he tells it, our chemistry was immediately obvious, and our story was intriguing.
A few weeks later, after Lisa finished interviewing Suzanne Somers [who credited my shoes with making her legs look amazing enough to land her a residency on the Las Vegas Strip], Scott said, “Every guest wants to talk about you, Donald. You should write a book.”
“Why don’t you write it for me?” I responded.
3) What are the toughest challenges you faced in your career and what lessons did you learn?
Looking back, my biggest mistakes were listening to the wrong people for business advice and assuming that they had my best interests in mind. As I moved through life, I realized that far too many people around me only had their own interests in mind and used me to realize their goals. Unfortunately, I came to some of these conclusions far too late to allow me to correct my course.
Today, I’m very cautious about who I deal with and what advice I get from people around me. I believe the friends and acquaintances who have been by my side through the good and the bad are the ones I can trust. They are not just along for the ride like so many were in the past, especially at the beginning of my career.
4) What advice would you offer those trying to navigate the industry today?
Make sure every “i” is dotted and every “t” is crossed and that you know exactly who you’re dealing with in every business transaction.
Do your research. Ask many, many, many questions.
Finally, never think that an end is an end. When met with a barrier, seek a way around it. And never be afraid to reinvent.
5) What would you like your legacy to be?
After selling my company in 2008 and being out of the design process for the first time in my adult life, I truly realized what my life was all about—what I truly was. I was an American shoe designer whose mark on fashion was that fashion footwear truly can be comfortable. My design legacy is that everything I did, everything I designed was about this marriage of comfort and style. I hope my legacy comes across in the book.
6) What exciting trends do you see in footwear design now?
It seems that fashion is the sole focus in footwear design today. Designers have lost interest in the marriage of design and comfort. I was known as the King of Stretch when I was designing. Comfort was an essential part of my DNA.
I have archives of sketches and swatches and designs that never got manufactured. I would love someone to put me back into the business. I’ve still got so much to say in terms of shoe design. Call me!
“Donald is a true living legend,” says R Scott French. “His story is one of American fashion history. He was an arbiter of style, a social catalyst, and purveyor of cool. He was designing lifestyle before any other American was thinking about their collections in this way. Donald, with Lisa by his side a couple of decades later, literally invented a category —comfortable fashion footwear—and became the sole standard bearer for what ought to be the norm in fashion footwear.”
“I saw Donald in action in 2005 or 2006 during the heyday of IMG’s Miami Fashion Week Swim Shows, and he made a lasting impression on me because he had set up a runway show with half a dozen models to show off his latest shoe collection. This was highly unusual at a trade show where, at most, designers had a single model on hand,” says co-author Vivian Kelly. “I was struck by his flare for showmanship and his attention to detail.”
Diana Ross (above) was one of the many stars who flocked to Pliner’s Right Bank Clothing Co. in L.A., the “it” destination for the fashionable and famous in the 1970s.
“Tina Turner would come in sometimes and start singing after hours,” Pliner recalls in his book. “Elton John used to buy sunglasses and some of the most beautiful furs I had….Bianca Jagger would come in and buy two of everything, one for her New York home and one for LA home.”
A few of Pliner’s many memorable creations. The secret sauce: Not only were the shoes chic, they were comfortable—at a time when those two word were often anathema. Women became converts after wearing their first pair because they “feel like your favorite sneakers which as much fashion snap as a pair of Pradas, for a third of the price,” as Pliner puts it in his book.
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