Hanging from a series of ordinary racks in the Bill Blass studio in the Garment District are the 48 looks that will be sent down the runway next Tuesday during Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. The casting of models has been settled, and the fittings will soon be finished. But the shoes have only just arrived. Designer Michael Vollbracht is having his first look at the new arrivals — simple, sexy, highly feminine — and arguing for a brocade slipper to be shown with a jacket of the same fabric.

The idea is met with frowns by the design team, and Mr. Vollbracht takes the opportunity to get in a good-natured grumble: “In Paris they put goats on the girls’ heads — and I’m not allowed to send out a matching jacket and shoe?”

In New York, matchy-matchy may be a no-no, but Mr. Vollbracht knows that although his customer base starts in Manhattan, it extends far beyond. Since he took over at Bill Blass in 2003, he has made it his mission to shore up the brand’s foundation. “I had to regain the Bill Blass customer’s confidence. She had lost it,” the designer said. “Slowly I’ve regained the customer of the old guard. I now can venture toward a younger girl.”

Bill Blass founded the eponymous label in 1970, and it became one of the leading names in American fashion. After his retirement in 2000, Blass hired Lars Nilsson, who designed only one season for the brand. Mr. Vollbracht — who between 1999 and 2002 had worked with Blass on a retrospective of the designer’s career — was asked to take the helm not long before Blass died in June 2002.

Today, the company is showing signs of growth that add up to serious momentum. Celebrities are on board: Janet Jackson, Barbara Bush (the younger), and Sigourney Weaver have worn the label. Vogue featured Angelina Jolie wearing a flowing, matte jersey gown on the cover of its January issue. Next week will see the launch of a new Bill Blass fragrance, as well as the extension of the shoe collection.

And though the brand has no freestanding retail stores, all that may change. In December, the company announced that it will be acquired by Nexcen Brands Inc., for $54.6 million. The move gives Bill Blass an even more firm footing: “It’s a big deal for us and hopefully it means we will be able to have our own retail,” Mr. Vollbracht said, adding that the first places he’d like to set up shop would be The Galleria in Houston, Texas; Bal Harbor, Fla., and Madison Avenue.

Those locations attract the type of client that Mr. Vollbracht has been working with since he started out at Geoffery Beene in 1969 and Donald Brooks in 1971. “I’ve always dressed wealthy women. I had the same age woman at Donald Brooks that I do now,” he said. “I’m very comfortable with her, and I’m comfortable with the movie stars.”

But it’s not just bank accounts or fame that defines Mr. Vollbracht’s customer. He creates clothes for a woman who is as resilient as she is seductive: If he could dress Elizabeth Taylor every day, he would. “The Bill Blass customer is a smart cookie. I’ve always loved the dark beauty — never wanted to dress Audrey Hepburn,” he said.

Even though his approach to fashion has remained steadfast, he sums up his career in one word: “ricochet.” After a high-profile career, he launched his own label. When his business partners’ marriage hit the skids in 1985, the company floundered, and he left the industry expecting to never return. The exile allowed him to focus on his painting and illustrating, which had already garnered him a measure of fame: The Bloomingdales shopping bag is his design. But working on the Blass retrospective book and exhibit at Indiana University’s art museum brought him back into the fold and led to his tenure at the top.

“I’ve been used to not knowing where the next meal is coming from to — seven or eight years later — having Bill Blass call me and say, ‘Mike I need your help.’ And thus my whole life changed again,” he said.

His reentry to the fashion industry was less than smooth, because so much had changed. The reduction in the number and variety of retail outlets was among the most significant shifts. “When I was a young designer, there were great retail outlets — tons — and only a few designers to compete with,” he said.

His clothing is now carried in three of the nation’s leading luxury retailers, Saks Fifth Aveune, Bergdorf Goodman, and Neiman Marcus. But while the retail environment has consolidated, there has also been a proliferation of designers to contend with. “Now you have all these designers trying to get into the venues, plus you have celebrities. Is Gwen Stefani a pop star or a fashion designer? You have not just Zac Posen to compete with but J. Lo.”

Though the fashion world has warmed to him, he received a chilly reception from editors in his first few seasons back. “The press was angry that a middle-aged man had gotten this job — that it didn’t go to a child,” he said.

On top of all that was the challenge of working in the shadow of the label’s founder. “I had to divorce myself from the image of Bill Blass. I could never be as rich or handsome as Bill Blass. I could never be as clever as Bill Blass. I needed to understand what I could do to heal this company,” Mr. Vollbracht said.

The fruits of that effort are coming out now with the shoe and fragrance deals. “My job now is not just to design couture, but to oversee the licenses, to try to clean up some of the dead ones, to bring in new, spirited licensees.”

At the end of the day, however, it’s the designing that he loves. The Fall 2007 collection is distinguished by rich colors, hand-stitched sequin dresses, and a series of flirty black party dresses. And no matter the age — “She may be 45, she may be 25,” Mr. Vollbracht said — this collection is destined for a woman who likes to create some drama.