After nearly 50 years in the fashion industry, Jeffrey Banks has plenty to unpack.

The American designer detailed some of the highlights of his career Thursday night during a “Fashion Icons” talk with his friend of many years Fern Mallis at 92NY. Borrowing Ralph Lauren’s personal tuxedo to wear to his senior prom, befriending Audrey Hepburn and sending her 25 species of flowers in one bouquet, taking Barbra Streisand’s measurements as a teenager and making spareribs for the late fashion designer Perry Ellis were a few of the memorable experiences he highlighted.

The two-time Coty-winning designer recently released a memoir, “Storyteller: Tales From a Fashion Insider,” which traces his career and encounters with Pierre Cardin, Yves Saint Laurent and other luminaries. The book is Banks’ sixth.

By the 1990s, Banks, who was born in Washington, D.C., had a business worth more than $20 million. But the interview wasn’t solely a remember-when conversation. Banks announced that he will bring back his menswear collection next fall, starting out with knitwear and underwear.

He singled out Todd Snyder as his current favorite menswear designer, and his mentees Mark Cooper and Karen Suen-Cooper. Asked about the challenges that he faced as a Black fashion designer, Banks said, “There wasn’t anything specific. In fact, the first interview that I did in DNR, I said, ‘The president of Saks Fifth Avenue doesn’t care if I’m Black, white, green, gay, straight, or otherwise. All he cares about is whether the clothes that I am selling are going to make money for his store.’”

Aside from wishing that he had carved out more time for his personal life, the New York-based creative has no regrets. Asked about his legacy, Banks hopes he’ll be remembered for having done everything with integrity whether it was a book or a design. “The greatest compliment is when somebody says, ‘I have a coat of yours that is 20 years old. I don’t fit in it. I can’t give it away, because I love it so much’.”

Here are some of the takeaways from Banks’ Q&A with Mallis:

First Naysayer

“That was my nursery school teacher Myrtle Thompson. She ran Fun and Frolic Nursery School. When I was 10 or 11, my parents went to the March on Washington. They and their friends were afraid to take their kids, because they were afraid there might be violence. She agreed to open up the nursery school to keep all of these kids safe while their parents were at the march. I was perusing Ladies’ Home Journal. I think they had a story about Yves Saint Laurent’s salon. I said, ‘That’s what I’m going to do.’ She said, ‘Whoever heard of a Black designer?’ I was thinking to myself, ‘I’ll show you.’”

Meeting Ralph Lauren

“I would go to the library to read everything I could about Ralph Lauren. I also had a subscription to Daily News Record and Women’s Wear Daily in high school. I thought even then he would be as big as he is now. When I found out Ralph Lauren was coming down to Britches to do a charity fashion show, I told my parents, ‘I’m not going to school. I’m going to meet Ralph Lauren.’ So, they wrote a note saying I was at the orthodontist all day. I got to the store early and [the owners asked if I had a driver’s license.] I was 16 and I had just gotten a driver’s license. They gave me the keys to the company’s station wagon to pick up Ralph from the airport. Of course, I was dressed head-to-toe in Ralph Lauren. Halfway to the airport, I got a flat tire. It was February. It was freezing out. Fortunately, there was a spare in the back of the station wagon and I flagged somebody down, who helped me to change the tire. But his plane was late too. I want you to know my clothes looked perfect.”

Connecting With Ralph Lauren

“Ralph asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. I said, ‘I want to be a designer like you.’ We talked about Audrey Hepburn, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. He said, ‘When you come to New York to look at colleges, I might have a job for you.’ A year later I came to New York with my mother to look at colleges and met with Ralph Lauren. Two weeks later he offered me a job as an assistant. I went to Pratt and I loved all of the liberal arts classes. But at that time, fashion was like home economics classes, so I switched to Parsons.”

Wearing a True Designer Tuxedo

“When I called Ralph to tell him which days I could work, he asked if I was going to my prom, and what I would wear. This was 1971 — “Saturday Night Fever,” powder blue tuxedos with ruffled shirts and platform-soled light blue patent leather shoes. And I wanted to look like Fred Astaire. Ralph said, ‘What size are you?’ I said 37 regular. He said, ‘So am I.’ He’s not. He’s 37 short. He said, ‘What size shirt are you?’ I said, ‘Fourteen and a half, 33.’ He said, ‘So am I.’ He was 14 1/2, 32.” He said, ‘What size shoe are you?’ I said, ‘Seven and half.’ He is too. He said, ‘I’ll send you my tuxedo.’ And he did. In those days , there was no FedEx. If you wanted to get something overnight, you went to Greyhound or Trailways. They put things in the undercarriage of the bus. He had someone pack up his tuxedo, shoes, bow tie and shirt. I got to wear his personal tuxedo to my high school prom.”

Switching Camps to Calvin Klein

“I stopped working at Ralph because I was falling asleep at work and I was falling asleep at school. I wanted to finish school. Neither of my parents graduated from college. I made the very hard decision to stop working. Calvin invited me to lunch and showed me his first sportswear collection. He holds up this A-line tweed skirt and says, ‘This is my Harris tweed skirt.’ I went, ‘That’s not Harris tweed. That’s not even 100 percent wool. Is that wool and acrylic?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Calvin, Harris tweed is 28, 29 inches wide. It’s handwoven in the outer islands of Scotland. That’s not Harris tweed,” That sealed the deal. He doubled what he was going to pay me.”

Unsolicited Branding

“My first day at work I wanted to give Calvin a present for hiring me. My friend made T-shirts in SoHo, when SoHo was the Wild West. I took Calvin Klein’s press kit with the logo on it. I knew his favorite color was chocolate brown. I took a few brown T-shirts and white T-shirts to have ‘Calvin Klein’ printed on the bicep of the T-shirt. I put them in box and gave them to him. He said, ‘Oh Jeff, this is really nice but I would never wear my name.’ A couple of days later Barry Schwartz saw the T-shirts and asked Calvin if they were in the line. Calvin said, ‘No, no, no, it was a gift but I would never wear it.’ Then I did something that probably could have gotten me fired. The night before one of the fashion shows I took one of each color of the shirts we were selling and had my friend silkscreen them with ‘Calvin Klein.’ I gave them to the salesgirls, who were seating all of the guests. The next day the buyers said they wanted the T-shirts with the Calvin Klein [logo] on it.”  

Calvin Klein’s Advice to Banks

“He said, ‘You’d be a fool not to do this. If it doesn’t work out, you can always come back.’ That was the impetus for starting my own studio. I created clothes for Alexandre Furs, Merona Sport, Bloomingdale’s, Johnnie Walker Scotch, and Neema. Around that time Ultrasuede came out. Halston had the exclusive for ready-to-wear. Bill Blass had the exclusive for womenswear. And Jeffrey Banks had the exclusive for menswear. They couldn’t manufacture the fabric fast enough. One Friday afternoon, there was Ronald Reagan wearing Jeffrey Banks to board a helicopter. Then the following week he was in an Ultrasuede peacoat. And then he was in a battle jacket. We took photos of him wearing this stuff to use for ads.”

Scouting Mindy Grossman in Her 20s

“She was brilliant. She fielded phone calls. She was calm under pressure. I gave her my card and said, ‘If you ever want to get into sales, I will create a position for you.’ She became vice president of my company. Then she became vice president of Merona and eventually she went to Nike, and became head of Nike women’s. She started Polo Jeans. Then she went to HSN. When she was CEO, I had just come out with my book about tartan. She asked if I had ever thought about doing a line of home stuff…that started a 14-year run at HSN…Now I’m back on with home.”

Advice for Young Designers

“Learn about the business of fashion. If I could do it all over again, I would have taken business courses, because fashion is a business.”