Anni KUAN 黃 光月

choi

Ruth La Ferla, Fit for a First Lady; Anni Kuan's breezy designs have a fan in Gracie Mansion. New York Times, Dec 26, 2013 (under the heading Front Row).
www.nytimes.com/2013/12/26/fashi ... wife-Anni-Kuan.html

Quote:

(a) "If Ms [黃光月 Anni] Kuan is feeling on top of her game, she has reason. Among her fans is Chirlane McCray, New York City’s first-lady-to-be and, for the designer, a reliable muse. * * * If Ms McCray wears one of Ms. Kuan’s designs when Bill de Blasio becomes mayor on Jan 1, it will be a crowning moment in a nearly decade-long relationship that has endured since Ms McCray discovered Ms. Kuan’s minimally embellished, youthful-looking pieces at Otto in Park Slope, in Brooklyn, where she shops.

(b) "Ms Kuan. a native of Taiwan, arrived in New York at age 12, studied fashion at Pratt Institute and established her studio in the garment district in 1986.

“'I run a tight ship,' she said of her operation, a tiny one by her account, with a retail volume she would disclose only as under $1 million. Her clothes, designed and manufactured in New York, are distributed in 35 to 40 stores across the country, including Turtle in Boston and Betsy Fisher in Washington, DC. A staff of three — a seamstress and patternmaker, a studio manager/production person and an assistant — all multitask, she said.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b) breezy (adj)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/breezy

(c) Gracie Mansion
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracie_Mansion
(Archibald Gracie[, a Scottish-born shipping magnate] built it in 1799, but had to sell it to pay debts in 1823)

"was acquired by New York City in 1891 and serves as the residency of the Mayor of New York City"
(i) The Scottish personal name AND surname Archibald is ultimately from, through French, Archambault of Germanic origin: "Old High German ercan ‘precious’, ‘excellent’ (see Arcand) + bald ‘bold’, ‘daring.’"
(ii) The Scottish surname Gracie is a variant of Scottish surname Grass, the latter having been "reduced from Gaelic greusaiche ‘shoemaker.’"

(d) Of Barbadian descent, Ms Chirlane McCray is the wife of mayor-elect Bill de Blasio of New York City.
(i) McCray is a variant of McRae. The latter is "from the Gaelic personal name Macraith, meaning ‘son of grace.’"
(ii) Compare
Rae (given name)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rae_(given_name)
(Short form of Rachel, (Hebrew) "ewe", or a feminine form of Ray [short for Raymond])

(e) Annie Kuan Fashion New York
www.annikuan.com/
("Annie Kuan formed her label in 1986")

I do not know how come her surname is spelled Kuan. It is not spelled according to Mandarin, Hoklo or Cantonese. Can it be the married name?
(f) Pratt Institute
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratt_Institute
(private; main campus in Brooklyn; founded in 1887 by American industrialist Charles Pratt, an oil tycoon)

The English surname Pratt is "from Old English prætt ‘trick’, ‘tricky’, ‘cunning.’ "
(g) tight ship:
"A well-managed organization, as in The camp director runs a tight ship . This metaphoric term alludes to a ship in which the ropes are taut and by extension the ship is strictly managed. [Second half of 1900s]"
Christine Ammer, The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms. Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
dictionary.reference.com/browse/tight+ship