Fabric of Dreams: Designing My Own Success

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"All women are superstars," enthuses Hankins in this account of his rise in the fashion industry, and he states that his goal is to "empower" them. At the age of seven, he designed and sewed a dress that, though its seams were crooked, his mother wore proudly to a wedding. Ever since, he has been designing women's wear, and though black and once poor, seemingly nothing has deterred him from achieving his success as the owner of a $40-million company. A supportive mother, ebullient self-confidence, refusal to be dissuaded by jeering classmates, determined networking, talent and good luck won Hankins enough scholarships and gifts to finance an education at Manhattan's Pratt Institute and Paris's Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture. After interning at Yves St. Laurent and Adrienne Vittadini, he created a job for himself designing women's wear at J.C. Penney and soon went into business on his own. Although his success provides an example for others, Hankins's account of it, written with People correspondent Markley, is so indiscriminately detailed that it often becomes tedious. (Mar.)

School Library Journal

YA-An inspiring, easy-to-read autobiography of an African-American fashion designer. Starting early in life, constantly designing clothes, even using sheets as fabric, Hankins eventually went to the Pratt School of Design. Later, he contacted the media to assist him in obtaining money to go to the Ecole in Paris. His actions resulted in a plane ticket and a two-part story on the Today show. Once in Paris, he was admitted to the school, and got tuition money and an apprenticeship with Yves Saint Laurent. The remarkable story continued with the young man becoming the first in-house designer at J. C. Penney, apprenticing with Adrienne Vittadini, getting a spot on the Home Shopping Network, and being listed as one of the top people to monitor by Newsweek. Hankins worked harder whenever obstacles came in his way-designing not only his clothes, but also his destiny-to become the owner of a multimillion-dollar business while still in his 20s.-Bobbi Thomas Skaggs, Robinson Secondary, Fairfax County, VA

Kirkus Reviews

An exceedingly detailed and discursive memoir by the young African-American fashion designer responsible for a very successful line of inexpensive women's wear who in only a few years went from a job in the quality assurance department at J.C. Penny to heading (at the ripe age of 28) his own clothing company, with annual revenues in excess of $40 million. Hankins, one of seven children raised by an indomitable single mother in Elizabeth, N.J., demonstrated a talent for fashion at an early age—he made a dress for his mother to wear to a wedding when he was seven. His memoir (coauthored by People magazine correspondent Markley) stresses the importance of the teachers in grade and high school who encouraged him, as well as that of the many figures in the fashion industry who helped him along. The story is a good one, and Hankins hawks his clothes on the Home Shopping Network, but it's hard to imagine the network's viewers feeling they need quite so thorough a record of events in the life of someone who is, after all, still rather young and whose name is not yet on everyone's lips.