A WOMAN YOU SHOULD KNOW: JUNE HORNE

JUNE HORNE

June Horne and Suzanne Stemper-Johnson


JuneHorne and June Haynes ( Director of Retail Operations for Valentino)

While the media wants everyone to zero in on the celebrities whom the designers pay to sit front row, many of you need to know about the ones who actually sit front row on a regular basis and June Horne is such a woman who not only sits regularly as a front row fixture but she ensures that many of these designers clothing appears in luxury retailer, SAKS 5TH AVE. Department Store's throughout the country.

Bio: June Horne, Senior Buyer of American and European Designer Collections, of retailer Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises (SFAE) is a trailblazer in the fashion industry.Horne has served as Senior Buyer for Designer American and European Collections since 1993. She joined Saks Fifth Avenue in the early seventies as Executive Trainee and was appointed Assistant Buyer soon thereafter.

She rose to the rank of Buyer and was given responsibility for Designer Sportswear in 1979. She was promoted to General Manager of the Garden City store beginning in 1982 where she served for four years. Horne returned to the buying office and has fulfilled roles of increasing responsibility since that time. Over the years Horne has worked with many of the brightest in the industry including Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, Isaac Mizrahi, Michael Kors, John Galliano, Jil Sander, Junya Watanabe, Zoran, and Patrick Robinson. In her duties with Saks, Horne travels to Europe four times a year visiting Germany, France and Italy to find the latest in trends and fashion collections.

She is a member of Fashion Group International and Fashion Outreach, a not for profit organization of fashion industry professionals dedicated to improving minority representation in the fashion industry. Amid her busy schedule she devotes time to mentoring programs reaching out to students at Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons.

June Horne, is a native New Yorker, and was born and raised in Harlem. Her Aunt worked in the bridal market and introduced her to the world of fashion at the age of 14. She worked in local boutiques to gain experience and knowledge of the industry. Horne attended F.I.T. and graduated with a degree from the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising. Horne lives in New York and is married to entrepreneur and restaurateur Frank Horne.

Photos: Getty,BFA, JPC

A SALUTE TO FASHION DESIGNER PATRICK KELLY

Karl Lagerfeld's not the only who has had Inès de la Fressange walk the runway. Here she wears Patrick Kelly's red, pearl embroidered dress circa 1988.

Toukie Smith was curvaceous and yet she still graced Patrick's Runways... and so did others.

The Collections

"I can't say I wouldn't have made it in New York because I didn't stay to find out."

  ~Patrick Kelly

In the 1980s an American fashion designer from Vicksburg, Mississippi by the name of Patrick Kelly took Paris by storm, becoming the first American member of the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter (the governing body of the prestigious French ready-to-wear industry).

"Super Model" Coco Mitchel Wearing Patrick Kelly

Embellishments, embellishments, embellishments...Kelly remembered much of his Southern upbringing and paid homage to it with many of his designs, which featured large buttons, some completely embroidered in buttons and pearls...but his creative spirit did not stop there.

...He also decorated his dresses with colorful bows, embroidered lips and hearts, and even in one collection he paid a tribute to his African roots by doing an entire collection in Kente cloth. Some wanted to say it was Betty Davis who put him on the map, not so because he had a legion of other well known women who were also fans of his clothes. The America media has been twisting stories for decades which goes to show that this is nothing new.

His clothes were sexy and glamorous and of course without controversy because to some people his logo supposedly reminded them of negative images of Little Black Sambo. Sadly, Patrick Kelly died in 1990 at the height of his career.

Photos: From my own personal collections

of magazines scanned by moi. Those of Toukie Smith,

Patrick Kelly and Ines de la Fressange are from CORBIS.

The Models of Versailles 1973 Tribute Luncheon

The Renegades of Fashion: America's Secret Weapon