cover image The Fabric of Dreams: Designing My Own Success

The Fabric of Dreams: Designing My Own Success

Anthony Mark Hankins. Dutton Books, $27.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-525-94329-7

""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.)