Paganne

Gene Berk actually studied to be a lawyer, but found it wasn’t for him and dropped out of law school. He ended up in the fashion industry merchandising menswear. From there he went on to creating sportswear for Oleg Cassini. In the late 1960s he started his own company, Paganne Ltd. He hand sketched his whimsical designs and sent them to Como and Milan to be transformed into screenprints. He designed the textiles first and then figured out how to incorporate them into clothing. Many of the same prints would be reconfigured different ways depending on the garment.