You might recognize her first by the company name DKNY, but Donna Karan is a fantastic designer worth knowing on her own.

She’s also the first designer featured thus far in our Know Your Fashion Designers series that was born and bred in the United States! We’ve already covered some Italian, Belgian and French designers, so if you need to catch up, click the links! In the meantime, get ready to learn more about America’s own fashion powerhouse, Donna Karan.

Many of you have been asking about name pronunciation for fashion designers and guess what: For those of you convinced that every fashion designer name has a weird pronunciation or “fashiony flair,” not so with Donna Karan! If you, like me, have pronounced Karan as “Ka-RAHN” in the past, her name actually sounds like “Karen”! Now when you read the rest of this article out loud to your friends, you can say Donna Karan’s name with accuracy and confidence.

{RELATED POST: The Best Designer Bags from Top Luxury Brands}

Read on to learn more about Donna Karan, her life, and her fabulous fashion skills!

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10 Facts about Donna Karan:

1. Donna Ivy Faske was born in Queens, New York in 1949. She grew up on Long Island with her mother, who was a model, and her stepfather, who was a haberdasher (someone who sells and deals with sewing accessories, commonly for men’s fashion).

2. She went to Parson’s School of Design and first entered the fashion business by landing a designing gig at Anne Klein. Donna soon worked her way up to becoming the head of Anne Klein’s design team.

3. She married Mark Karan in the early 1970s and had a daughter with him named Gabrielle. However, Mark and Donna divorced in 1978; she remarried in 1983 to Stephen Weiss.