Donald Brooks 1928-2005; Isaac Mizrahi remembers the thoroughly modern master of witty, unexpected color and cut.(Obituary)

Byline: Isaac Mizrahi

of Blass, Beene, and Brooks-the BBB triumvirate that dominated American fashion in the sixties and early seventies-Donald Brooks was the third and most obscure. He died this August at 77, and though he was the most obscure, to me he was the best. Unlike Bill Blass, who had the best taste, and Geoffrey Beene, who had the best technique, Brooks wasn't the best at any one thing, but he was the most creative of them all. With an incredibly light hand, a fabulous color sense, and a tongue always in his cheek, Brooks made clothes that seemed weightless and delightful, like souffles.

As we all know, to make something that feels like nothing requires a great amount of knowledge and skill. Brooks never drew attention to the rigor underlying his work. (I find it so tedious when a designer rattles on about the hidden details of a suit. A lot of us can tailor.) On the contrary, his enduringly avant-garde approach was never to take things seriously. The technique that underlined his work was overpowered by his enormous sense of humor and fun.

Another source of magic lay in Brooks's intense sense of color. In his day it was de rigueur to do strong colors, and Donald Brooks did not shirk his responsibility, combining colors boldly: pink and brown, or bud-green and ...