Obituary: Fashion Director Patty Fox, 62

Patty Fox—fashion producer, commentator and author—died of ovarian cancer on Sept. 26.

Fox was most recently chief creative officer at MyShape (www.myshape.com), the online shopping site based in Glendale, Calif.

She also served as fashion director of Divine Design from 1999 until 2005. The annual fashion and home deacute;cor shopping event raises funds for Project Angel Food and regularly draws an A-list crowd of Hollywood and fashion supporters.

Fox got her start in the industry as a model with the John Robert Powers agency in Los Angeles. She then shifted to retail at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, working her way up to Western regional fashion director, overseeing 14 Saks stores.

During that time she served as regional director of the Los Angeles chapter of Fashion Group International and was a regular fashion reporter on Regis Philbin’s “A.M. Los Angeles” morning talk show.

She left Saks to launch her own fashion production business, often appearing as a trend forecaster and fashion commentator on television talk shows, as well as producing fashion events, including the 25th Anniversary Celebration of Rodeo Drive in 1997, when the city of Beverly Hills closed its famous thoroughfare to traffic to create a two-block-long runway for the models. In the 1990s, legendary retailer Fred Hayman, founder of the Giorgio Beverly Hills boutique in Beverly Hills, tapped Fox to assist with an annual Academy Awards fashion show for international press in the days leading up to the awards ceremony. The show, which highlighted the types of red-carpet gowns seen at the Academy Awards, became an annual event, and Fox took over as coordinator and director when Hayman stepped down.

Fox was also the author of two fashion books, “Star Style: Hollywood Legends as Fashion Icons,” published in 1995 by Angel City Press, and “Star Style at the Academy Awards,” published in 2000, also by Angel City Press.Born Patricia Lucille Davis in 1948 in Inglewood, Calif., Fox was a graduate of El Camino College in Torrance, Calif., and the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles. She later earned her bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Fox is survived by her brother, Robert Davis; sister-in-law Susan Davis; niece Jessica; and nephew Neil Davis, as well as several aunts, cousins and friends. A memorial service will be held later this fall.

Contributions in Fox’s name can be made to Project Angel Food in Los Angeles or the Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation at UCLA.

“For the countless that knew her publicly and those fortunate to be in her close circle of friends—and those like me, who fell somewhere in between—you can be certain, life just won’t be as chic without Patty,” said John Arguelles, president of Lloyd Klein.—Alison A. Nieder