Helen O’Hagan, a Charleston native and influential fashion leader recognized for trumpeting and launching some of essentially the most iconic designers of the 1970s and past, died in Charleston on June 13 on the age of 89.
Helen O’Hagan in her days as an government at Saks Fifth Avenue. Provided
An omnipresent but unassuming fixture within the New York model world by way of the 1990s, O’Hagan was described by those that knew her as a petite dynamo with a grand imaginative and prescient. As vp, director of public relations and particular occasions at Saks Fifth Avenue, she shepherded the corporate by way of the heady excessive fashion days when American designers got here into their very own and these from afar emerged with fanfare within the United States. They did so largely on the steam of celebrated shops like Saks.
Often sporting a classy white coif and vibrant purple round glasses, the ever-composed O’Hagan demonstrated her personal aptitude for the theatrical, although elected to shine her substantial highlight on others. In her almost 4-decade tenure at Saks, she heralded a who’s who record of fashion greats, amongst them Bill Blass, Geoffrey Beene, Carolina Herrera, Donna Karan, Carolyne Roehm and Oscar de la Renta, forging lifelong friendships with these she championed.
“She was really one of the pioneers of fashion because she was in a key role,” stated Massimo Ferragamo, chairman of Ferragamo USA, who added she was maybe one of round 5 in such a place on the time.
He first met O’Hagan on the age of 14 when he accompanied his mom on a enterprise journey to New York. As they disembarked from a transatlantic cruise, O’Hagan was there to greet them and got here to be thought-about by his household because the American grandmother, in addition to a ladies of nice wit with whom they have been all the time laughing.
“When she loved you, she was devoted,” he stated.
Saks government Helen O’Hagan (left) with Fiamma Ferragamo. Provided
When O’Hagan obtained the Chairman’s Award from Melvin Jacobs, then chairman and chief government of Saks Fifth Avenue, he spoke of the essential function she had performed in shaping the general public picture of Saks. “She’s the conscience of the corporate. She’s the supply of our roots.”
O’Hagan was recognized to dream up wildly imaginative occasions to showcase designers, from gatherings in Lake Tahoe to New York runway reveals in surprising spots just like the Rockefeller Center skating rink. She additionally traveled commonly to Europe to photograph upcoming collections from the key European designers.
Fashion design Carolyne Roehm, who has a house in Charleston, first met O’Hagan when the aspiring designer was working with Oscar de la Renta. “I would see her herding the designers around like a Mother Goose.”
When Roehm began her personal firm, O’Hagan was there, all the time environment friendly however by no means officious. She recalled her sense of enjoyable, which included, Roehm stated, pulling off pranks, facilitating blonde wigs or dreadful outfits to shock the likes of Blass and de la Renta.
“She was game,” Roehm stated.
Some of O’Hagan’s signature traits account for her two lifelong nicknames. Family members donned her “Wee Helen,” impressed by her sleight stature that belied her largess. Her mates opted for “Speedy,” referencing O’Hagan’s default setting of non-cease movement. She was recognized to sprint hither and yon to appointments and capabilities and conferences with mates, typically on a bicycle.
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Her private life was equally outsized, spent within the firm of her companion, the legendary film star Claudette Colbert. The two shared a Fifth Avenue house and a house in Barbados till her loss of life in 1996.
In a 2010 article in Vanity Fair journal, O’Hagan of their Barbados dwelling, “together with her lap laden with dusty albums, sat reminiscing in regards to the actress till almost midnight, the reverential cadence of her phrases accompanied by the rhythmic lapping of the surf, seen from paneless home windows that overlook the prettiest cove on the island.” In it, she stated of Colbert, “Claudette was really a Renaissance woman — a modern woman ahead of her times.”
“She all the time had so many issues occurring, however she all the time had time for us,” stated Mariana Ramsay Hay, O’Hagan’s second cousin and godchild, recalling her childhood journeys to New York that all the time included time with O’Hagan, who she stated positioned a deep worth on household.
Later, she did the identical for Hay’s daughter, Kathleen. While dwelling in New York, she joined her “third grandmother” for mass on Sundays and about town, taking in stories of how “she cherished creating wild runway reveals that may shock individuals.”
Another Charlestonian was Dana Sinkler, co-founder of Terra Chips. In the corporate’s fledgling days, O’Hagan ensured the artisanal chips have been served at each Saks Fifth Avenue occasion.
While O’Hagan’s trajectory took her removed from Charleston, the place she had first honed her occasion manufacturing abilities whereas working on the Dock Street Theatre after highschool, she maintained shut ties with mates and household and spent her ultimate years right here.
Jeffrey Kalinsky, founder of Jeffrey New York and Jeffrey Atlanta and former Nordstrom director of designer merchandising, recalled in his personal Charleston youth the adulation for her held by his father Morris Kalinsky, founder of the previous Bob Ellis Shoes. “As a young person growing up in Charleston, S.C., I dreamed of going to New York … to make an impact like (that).”
But by most accounts, O’Hagan was extra inclined to take action in her personal low-key manner, a lot in order that many weren’t conscious of the dimensions of her life. Hagood recalled her shock on visiting O’Hagan’s house to identify Colbert’s Academy Award for greatest actress on the mantle, one she had gained for her function within the 1934 film “It Happened One Night.”
Ferragamo noticed that she was instrumental in bringing fashion to the United States, in a sublime manner that by no means directed the eye to herself. “She did it quietly … and I believe that speaks mountains about her.”
Helen Wilken O’Hagan was born on February 7, 1931, in Charleston. She was the daughter of John J. O’Hagan and Helen Wilken O’Hagan. She is predeceased by her mother and father and brother, John (Johnny) O’Hagan. She is survived by her sister, Kathleen O’Hagan Blanchard, her nieces and nephews, Helaine Blanchard Christy, Paul Blanchard, Jay O’Hagan, David O’Hagan, Kathleen O’Hagan Hennessey and Frank O’Hagan, in addition to many grandnieces and nephews, cousins and nice mates.
Due to present circumstances, her Mass of Christian Burial will probably be celebrated at St. Mary’s Catholic Church at a later date. Online condolences could also be supplied at www.CharlestonFunerals.com. In lieu of flowers, it’s requested that donations be despatched to The Dock Street Theatre, 135 Church St., Charleston, SC 29401; the Restoration Fund at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 89 Hasell St., 29401; or to Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, 869 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10065. Arrangements by James A. McAlister, Inc.
