NEW YORK — Anne Maree Lewin, a lingerie designer known for contemporary daywear, sleepwear, robes and at-homewear bearing the Anne Lewin label, died Tuesday at her home in Manhattan. She was 52.
The cause of death was osteogenic sarcoma, a bone cancer, said her former mother-in-law, Evan Frances Agnew.
Lewin, an Australian who studied fashion design at the University of Queensland, started her own lingerie company, Anne Lewin Ltd., in Brisbane, Australia, in the early Eighties. She sold the company and arrived in the U.S. in 1985, where she founded the Anne Lewin Australia lingerie and sleepwear firm in New York.
Until NAP Inc. acquired the firm from Lewin and Sydney-based Gazal Inc. in 1993, she worked out of a design studio and showroom in her Manhattan brownstone. Lewin would show her collections to retailers and fashion editors at the brownstone, where she was fond of also showing off her son, Samuel Alexander Frances, then a toddler. Architectural photographs taken by her former husband, Scott Alexander Frances, reflected the clean, classic look of Lewin’s designs.
Lewin’s keen eye for trends, as well as her expertise in sourcing and production in Asia and the Middle East, made the Anne Lewin brand a status label at major specialty and department stores and smaller specialty operations. In the mid-Nineties, Lewin changed direction from designing a classification she described as “couture lingerie” to more mainstream product aimed primarily at department stores.
Lewin, who served as designer and divisional manager of the Anne Lewin robes and at-homewear division at NAP, told WWD in 1995, “We’ve taken a very contemporary point of view with items that are very sportswear-looking, but with a softer edge.”
Instead of her signature silks and pima cottons, Lewin began focusing on mixes of thermal and French terry, texture rather than prints, and interesting touches such as zigzag trims and satin piping.
In 1996, Lewin embarked on a career at what was then the Limited Brands division of The Limited Inc., where she designed and merchandised the Cacique intimates brand, and later became vice president of design for Limited Design Services.
Victor Lee, president of NAP, said Lewin “had a wonderful sense of style and a great eye for all things beautiful.”
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“Anne was always enthusiastic and positive, and her passion for her work influenced all of those around her to be better at whatever they were doing,” Lee said.
Wendi Goldman, co-president of Limited Design Services, the design and merchandising unit of Limited Brands Inc., said, “Anne was an amazing designer and a creative talent.”
In addition to her son, Lewin is survived by her parents, Wendy and John, and a brother, Alan.
A memorial service will be at 4 p.m. on Sunday at Grace Church, 802 Broadway, in Manhattan.