Constructor: Robyn Weintraub

Relative issue: Straightforward

THEME: none 

Phrase of the Day: Invoice BLASS (1A: Invoice for costly clothes?) —

William Ralph Blass (June 22, 1922 – June 12, 2002) was an American designer. He was the recipient of many trend awards, together with seven Coty Awards and the Style Institute of Know-how‘s Lifetime Achievement Award (1999). // Blass was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the son of Ralph Aldrich Blass, a touring {hardware} salesman, and his spouse, Ethyl (Keyser) Blass. […]  In 1943, Blass enlisted within the Military. Attributable to his intelligence and expertise, he was assigned to the 603rd Camouflage Battalion. Its mission was to deceive the German Military into believing the Allies had been positioned in pretend areas, for instance through the use of dummy tanks. He served on this unit at a number of main operations together with the Battle of the Bulge, and the Rhine River crossing. 

After the warfare, Blass returned to New York, and was promptly employed as Anne Klein‘s assistant. Nevertheless, he was quickly fired; allegedly, Anne advised him that whereas he had good manners, he had no expertise. He was a protégé of Baron Nicholas de Gunzburg. In 1970, after twenty years of success in menswear and womenswear, he purchased Maurice Rentner Ltd., which he had joined in 1959, and renamed it Invoice Blass Restricted.

Over the subsequent 30 years he expanded his line to incorporate swimwear, furs, baggage, fragrance, and chocolate. In 1967, he was the primary American couture designer to start out a menswear line. That a part of his enterprise grew to supply all the pieces from ties, socks and belts to fits and night garments. It was made by 18 licensees.

Like many designers, his ladies’s-couture collections misplaced cash however served to advertise different elements of his enterprise. By the mid-Nineteen Nineties, his ready-to-wear enterprise grossed about $9 million yearly and his 97 licensing agreements had retail gross sales of greater than $700 million a 12 months.

His shoppers, lots of whom had been additionally his pals, included Joyful Rockefeller, Brooke Astor, Nancy Kissinger, Jessye Norman, Gloria Vanderbilt and Patricia Buckley. (wikipedia)

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Effectively this was very simple, however whereas my resolve was quick, the shortage of resistance meant that I did not really feel the whoosh a lot. There must be at the least a little bit little bit of battle to make the revelation of an extended reply really feel like I am being catapulted into the grid, however at present there was hardly any. Additional, the grid structure was very typical and blocky, on this means that appeared to inhibit the fireworks feeling when the longer solutions went off. Do not get me mistaken, it is a particularly easy and entertaining puzzle—it simply felt like there have been barely fewer marquee solutions than I usually see from a Robyn puzzle, and the construction of the grid made it really feel like I used to be spending extra time plodding via 4’s and 5’s than I used to be whooshing concerning the grid. Nonetheless, there have been at the least 4 longer solutions that made the journey really feel price it. The primary was SHORT SHORTS, with its buttocks-baring bravado (6D: Cheeky apparel?). I additionally like that should you head east on the finish of the primary SHORT you head straight into STORIES—it is like an L-shaped bonus reply! There’s additionally a pun on the editor’s identify (SHORT SHORTZ!), and since SHORT SHORTS intersects TORTE, I am now questioning concerning the existence of SHORT TORTES (and who eats them):

If I struggled in any respect (and I did not, actually) it was within the quick stuff, with stuff like LAMA (19A: Reincarnated one, possibly), and TIDE (33D: Pool maker), and SIRI (36A: Who talks on the telephone rather a lot), and REMY, who I had as NEMO there for a bit (26D: Protagonist of Pixar’s “Your Good friend the Rat”) (Me: “They put the fish in a rat film? Daring.”). I needed to wait on the final two letters of SWEETIE (5D: Babycakes) as a result of I believed it would by some means be SWEETUM, although now that I give it some thought, it is SWEETUMS, is not it? The context for 42D: Go away sitting in a breeze, say additionally eluded me, so COOL took almost each cross. “Oh, pie! They’re speaking about pie!” Seems should you go away the “window sill” half out of your imagined pie-COOLing state of affairs, I can not discover the pie. Discovered the SW nook the hardest, as I could not get both AGENDAS (43A: Chairs normally have them) or DODGES (46A: Eludes) shortly from their again ends, after which I misspelled ENGLES (thusly) (41D: Thinker Friedrich) and briefly forgot GAUL existed (54A: Land vandalized by the Vandals). In the event you situation a phrase of warning to the possible purchaser of your primitive dwelling quarters regarding the bizarre wall work you have made in there, that is known as a CAVEART. You recognize, a caveat about your CAVE ART. That is to be distinguished from the CAVIART you will should situation concerning the fish-egg sculpture you made that one time, and the scent it left behind. (Sorry, that is what occurs after I get up to put in writing at 2 within the morning—I am going to cease now. See you tomorrow.)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld