But it won't be only major designers from the United States who participate.

"The major designers go to the fabric shows," she said.

So it is not surprising that she was the first major designer to organize a showing of her summer styles.

It's also one of the few major designers to have a shop downtown.

The major American designers claim to feel no competition from one another, each content with his or her band of loyalists.

Much as we may admire the major designers of the last 100 years and more, we often end up longing for something else.

"We want to show the first examples of the styles by the major designers."

"They're less expensive than most of the major designers and not as stylized," she said.

"We don't go into a major designer's collection and just take the accessories or selected clothes," he said.

But the Sternberg firm was the major designer of the project.