From Mobsters' Pinstripes To Pashmina Throws

by CHRIS SCHMIDT

Faux mink-lined slippers. Pashminabacked batik throws. Cashmere-ply silk robes.

These sumptuous, feminine wares aren't what you'd expect from a designer who made her name dressing gangsters and wise guys in movies such as "Analyze This," "Donnie Brasco," and "Carlito's Way."

But don't bother telling that to costume designer Aude Bronson-Howard, who has just opened a new retail boutique, ABH Design, on East 76 th Street, for her luxurious line of clothes and home accessories.

Until recently, her scarves and linens were only available to those in-the-know at her 56 th Street studio, where stylists picked up items for celebrity clients such as Diane Sawyer, Oprah Winfrey, and Robert De Niro.

Ms. Bronson-Howard is used to wearing several different hats in the design world: In her 30 years in the business, she has done everything from decorating apartment interiors to designing scarves to dressing leading men.

The daughter of a French mother and American father, the bilingual Ms. Bronson-Howard settled in Paris in her late teens for fashion design school and soon landed a job designing men's accessories for Yves Saint Laurent in the early 1970s. It was the height of Saint-Laurent's reign as the king of French fashion, and Ms. Bronson-Howard recalls the time as heady.

"It was the Andy Warhol days," she says. "There was a very fine line between work and play." As to why Ms. Bronson-Howard left Saint-Laurent, she remarks, "High fashion is a young man's -- or women's -- sport."

During the 1980s, Ms. Bronson-Howard slowly worked her way into the costume design business: Her first film job, as an assistant costume designer, was for the movie "Fame." She went on to do the costumes for films such as "Mississippi Burning," "Meet Joe Black," and "Scent of a Woman."

She may be best known, however, for her work on gangster movies, and she has worked numerous times with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Becoming a mob-land couturiere was never Ms. Bronson-Howard's intention; the designer's background in men's accessories and her New York residency probably had much to do with it.

"One of the few types of movies that are filmed in New York are gangster films," she explains. Not that Ms. Bronson-Howard minds. "Men are just easier to work with," she says, listing Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, Mr. De Niro, and Mr. Pacino as her favorite actors to dress.

While working on films, Ms. Bronson-Howard also pursued her own design projects: In 1988, she launched a line of scarves, which were soon picked up by Bergdorf Goodman. "When I met Al Pacino for the first time, coincidentally, he was wearing one of our fringed scarves a stylist had selected for him at Bergdorf's," she says. Today her wares are still carried at Bergdorf Goodman, as well as Barneys and Takashimaya.

At her new, light-filled 76 th Street boutique, Ms. Bronson-Howard's entire collection of luxury accessories is on display. Signature ABH items include terry-cloth-lined linen bathrobes ($260), silk dressing gowns ($425), and striped canvas beach bags ($105 to $160), as well as fanciful items such as lobster-printed tin Chinese bowls ($19 to $21), whole boxes of gypsy-inspired bracelets, and striped canvas Maharajah slippers ($95).

More a curated melange than a unified aesthetic, Ms. Bronson-Howard's merchandise is distinctive in one key way: her ingenuity and indulgence in the use of textiles. "Fabric is my obsession," the designer says. Indeed, one single fabric might turn up in any number of incarnations, from tablecloths to slippers.

While the idea of opening a luxury goods boutique in a time of recession might seem daunting, Ms. Bronson-Howard says her business has not suffered the effects of the bad economy. "Now more than ever, the more expensive items sell best," she says.

Ms. Bronson-Howard also gears her merchandise mainly to women, despite her background in men's accessories, because "that's where the business is."

As to the effects of Americans' current anti-Franco sentiment on her openly ancien régime establishment (ABH Design's logo is a frog), Ms. Bronson-Howard is not concerned: "I think any hostility there has already past," the designer says. "I doubt you'll find that Daniel Boulud and David Bouley's business has suffered -- people always want beautiful, fun things."

ABH Design, 401 E. 76 th St., 212-249-2276.