Echo Design Group Inc. chairwoman Dorothy “Dot” Roberts died on June 11 on the age of 91. The explanation for loss of life was most cancers.
As Echo’s chief, Roberts steered the corporate to signal on a fleet of blue-chip partnerships. The firm has produced scarves for Ralph Lauren, Coach, Talbots, J.Jill, Brooks Brothers, MoMa and the Smithsonian. It additionally creates personal label items which might be offered in main department shops worldwide. Echo scarves additionally operates as a stand-alone model that’s offered by main retail companions. In addition to scarves, the corporate produces puffy nylon jackets, rainwear, hats, wraps and leather-based gloves and an in depth dwelling line.
The model is understood for its vibrant and eclectic prints.
A lifelong New Yorker, Roberts would have marked her seventieth anniversary with the corporate in early July. As Roberts informed WWD in a 2013 interview marking Echo’s ninetieth anniversary, the corporate was based by her dad and mom on their wedding ceremony day and was a continuing focus of each day life – together with dinnertime dialog.
“We talked about Echo at every meal,” she mentioned on the time. “They used to take me to the office and I started traveling with them. When I was seven, they took me to Europe with them. We went to London, Paris and Lake Como in Italy. I knew all the buyers. My mother and father’s first three accounts were Saks Fifth Avenue, I. Magnin and Marshall Field’s, three of the best stores.”
Roberts was not allowed to play her hand at nepotism. She labored her means up within the firm following faculty commencement, beginning out as an workplace assistant after which shifting on to showroom supervisor.
When Roberts’ father died, her first husband, Paul Roberts, grew to become head of the Echo Design Group. Following his loss of life in 1978, Roberts took the reins herself.
“I’m proud of the four generations,” she informed WWD. “First, second, third and fourth…We have been an important and relevant resource to the retail community all these years…I am also not just proud of the family, I am very proud of all the Echoans, as we call them.”
Roberts is survived by her daughter, Lynn, and son Steven, each of whom are concerned within the firm; two stepchildren, Lizabeth and Peggy, in addition to 9 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Roberts outlived each her husbands – Paul Roberts, who died in 1978, and Paul Cohen, who handed away in 2012.
A memorial service shall be held Sunday for shut members of the family solely because of the ongoing COVID-19 disaster. Donations might be made to the Parsons School of Design or American Heart Association in honor of Dorothy Roberts.
