HOUSTON CHRONICLE ARCHIVES
Paper: HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Date: THU 09/29/2005
Section: Star
Page: 1
Edition: 2 STAR

Celeste Stein is getting a leg up on fall / With bold prints, sparkles, Galveston hosiery designer draws big names and is labeled a hit

By JOY SEWING
Staff

Hosiery designer Celeste Stein has worked with some of the world's top fashion lines, designers and retailers, but you'd never know it.

Her company, Celeste Stein design, is tucked into a warehouse along an industrial road in Galveston. It seems like an unlikely place for a multimillion-dollar hosiery company, but Stein likes being close to home.

She lives on Tiki Island with her husband, Ben Jay Stein, owner of Star Fine Furniture in Galveston.

After weathering Hurricane Rita with little damage, she's focused again on her work.

Celeste Stein design churns out more than 2 million pairs of printed socks, tights and pantyhose a year. The designs are wild, abstract and colorful. Some reflect Stein's affinity for the absurd and most are pure fun.

She creates hosiery wear for designer labels including Liz Claiborne, Moschino, Coach, Todd Oldham, Roberto Cavalli, Givenchy and Berkshire, and stores such as Neiman Marcus, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, J.C. Penney, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls.

She designed reflexology socks for Avon, created printed hosiery, ties and accessories for Elvis' Graceland, and even made Angelina Jolie's sexy legwear for the recent movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Her patented ringer socks with rhinestones were used for the recent Heatherette fashion show at New York Fashion Week.

"I've always liked socks, fun ones that no one else had," says the Galveston native, who studied art at the University of Oklahoma and returned home to marry and start a family. She has three grown children. (Her daughter, Dori Stein, is her company's marketing manager; her sister, Renee Rochkind handles accounting; and her daughter-in-law, Kim Stein, oversees production.)

In 1970, she began creating rhinestone-embellished sweatshirts, T-shirts and socks in her garage, selling them to friends and later speciality stores. As her business grew and other companies copied her designs, she expanded into hosiery.

"I wanted to do something different, like (designer) Nicole Miller did with ties 25 years ago. I wanted to do something that hadn't been done before," Stein says.

Today, with more than 50 employees, Stein is making printed hosiery at a breakneck pace. She recently completed a 15,000-piece order for Liz Claiborne and has orders for her printed tights, trouser socks and sheer pantyhose coming in from as far as Australia.

Sally Kay, president of the Hosiery Association, a national trade organization, says it's rare to find a hosiery designer who also manufactures her own creations.

"There's a lot that goes into hosiery," Stein says.

She designed about half of the 1,400 prints in her inventory, taking inspiration from nature, animals and other things. The remainder she buys from print houses. She closely follows fashion trends, since hosiery styles typically complement ready-to-wear fashion. If color is in vogue, she says, so is colorful hosiery.

Stein's employees work in an assembly line, cutting printed paper, then using cardboard leg forms to make the hosiery. The forms are sandwiched between the paper then cooked a few minutes at up to 425 degrees in a large oven. Once the pieces emerge, the forms are removed and the hosiery is folded and packaged.

"There's no one else who does what she does," says Rochkind. "She's always looking for the next big thing."

Stein's next project is creating printed Ace bandages. A patent is pending, and she expects sales to soar.

"At my very first market in Dallas, there was a lady who asked me, `What do you expect out of a little garage business?' I told her that I wanted to make an impression in the fashion industry. She laughed," Stein said. "If that lady only knew what I did now. I know that I've truly made my mark."