WOMAN ON TOP; ELYSE KROLL EXPANDED THE COLLECTIVE FROM AN ELITE GROUP OF 20 DESIGNERS TO A POWERFUL 375-EXHIBITOR TRADE SHOW. NOW SHE'S GETTING REALLY AMBITIOUS.

Daily News Record, July, 2001 by Cunningham, Thomas

It's the end of a long interview. For the last hour and a half, Elyse Kroll has reminisced about the early days of the Designers' Collective, expressed her candid opinion of fashion editors, evaluated New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and handicapped the contenders for this fall's mayoral race. Now that the session is over, she offers her interviewer one final piece of advice.

"Write a good story," she says, "or I'll kill you."

She's joking, of course -- right, Elyse? -- but the remark is also characteristic of Kroll, a no-nonsense executive who is ...