As featured in September/October 1997
Anthony Mark Hankins
Texan Gives Fashion A New Atitude
By Nicole Volta Avery
Seldom does a phone conversation with a stranger inspire or uplift the spirit. Those emotion-filled talks — a windstorm of affirmation, deep thought, and heartfelt laughter — are usually a privileged exchange among family members and dear friends. They are a blessing. So, too, is a chat with fashion designer Anthony Mark Hankins — everybody’s boyfriend.
Dressing the Masses
Hankins, a fireball of energy and creativity, is powerful. At age 28, he sits at the helm of Anthony Mark Hankins Designs Inc., a Texas-based fashion company in Dallas, whose earnings kissed $40 million last year. The designer’s success rests largely with a God-given knack for designing stylish, affordable clothing; but his vibrant personality and flair for packaging has catapulted him over the top.
Hankins holds an uncanny ability to sweep folks off to Anthonyland — a whimsical place populated by cartoon characters, clothes, old movies, jokes, song, and vivid color. That’s what attracted J.C. Penney to him five years ago. He was their first-ever in-house designer; but making history wasn’t enough.
In 1994, Hankins left Penney’s, where he specialized in garments for women of color, and started his own company. Now he’s everywhere, making everything from women’s and children’s apparel to jewelry and home furnishings. More than 1,200 stores across the nation carry the AMH label.
“The first year was the toughest,” says Hankins, during a recent telephone interview that quickly turned into a dish session. “We had to get our customers familiar with our accounts. We didn’t have any bank financing and anything we made we put back into the company.
“Faith had a lot to do with it,” he says. “You need to know that there is a higher being. There is magic in that spiritual armor.”
Hankins doesn’t do things like other fashion designers. Sure, his clothing is also found at stores such as Nordstrom, Sears, Target, in the Spiegel catalog, and on the Home Shopping Network. His company also markets designs for children and women through Butterick Patterns.
But, as it is with most fashion royalty, that’s not where his customer involvement ends. Through clever marketing and promotion, Hankins forges a personal link with clients. He sells more than merchandise — he sells himself.
Every season, and often between seasons, Anthony Mark Hankins Designs mails out more than 5,000 press kits heralding his freshest styles. And for media members, buyers, customers, and close friends who receive the mailings, it’s like getting a greeting card from a favorite relative — always a welcomed surprise. The current fashion news is mixed with a colorful array of photographs and personal messages from Hankins. There are also treats and memorabilia such as AMH bookmarks, calendars, pins, and dolls to name a few.
“Fashion is what you wear," says Hankins. “A shirt is a shirt, a skirt is a skirt. It is the designer who gives the clothes the emotion and the feelings. The clothing is great. But we give a pulse; it’s nothing but love. There is magic in these clothes.”
A unique part of the magic comes from his attention to the total woman represented by real, multi-cultural women who work hard for their money. So, in addition to quality and price, Hankins takes elegance to new levels with spirited designs and user-friendly fashions that stress comfort and generous sizing to flatter all body types, from petite to women’s sizes.
The designer has his hands in everything. In addition to designing, he heads up the promotions efforts, a task most designers are removed from. “We spend at least $300,000 a year,” he says. “We have a kitty and we put aside two percent of every sale. It adds up. But it is money well spent. It’s all about the personal touch.”
The growth is constant. Hankins’ costume jewelry collection was launched last November during his monthly show for the Home Shopping Network, followed by designer hats and other accessories. Menswear, sleepwear, and a home-furnishings bed-and-bath line are being developed. Hankins is also working on a youth-oriented book, Fabric of Dreams, based on inspirational career exploration talks he makes at inner-city schools.
In the Beginning
Hankins has come a long way since his humble beginnings in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Born to a Cuban father and an African-American mother, the designer draws upon two cultures — one vibrant and bold, the other humble and earth-driven — to create his wardrobe collections. The youngest of seven children, Hankins made his first dress at age seven. It was a crooked seamed, two-piece charmeuse that his mother proudly sported to a wedding. After finishing high school and a two-year stint at the Pratt Institute of Design in Brooklyn, New York, he flew off to Paris, compliments of an anonymous supporter who probably saw a profile of him on the Today show.
While in Paris, Hankins enrolled at Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture without the slightest clue how he was going to pay tuition. During the first few days of class, he got a call from the vice president of Yves St. Laurent (the fashion house headed by his idol) saying that the company would pay for his education. Was it luck? Maybe. Or maybe it was the result of the positive energy with which Hankins surrounds himself.
“Life can fling you so many things,” he says. “But there is still laughter and loving and life going on. So when those buyers want to act crazy and silly, I don’t stop. I get in there with the best of them.”
But it’s not all sweet smellin’ flowers for Hankins, who has worked for big fashion names like the late Willi Smith and Adrienne Vittadini. Thanks to fashion — a business that is notoriously colorstruck — he’s had to overcome his fair share of pits. Only a handful of African-American designers make it big. History offers proof: There was Jeffrey Banks in the 1970s. Willi Smith’s star rose in the 1980s. Now, it’s Anthony Mark Hankins’ turn.
“People fall in love with Anthony because he is not afraid of being black,” the designer says. “When you can accept yourself for what you are, you are better off.”
To the Moon
A reporter once likened Anthony Mark Hankins to the Road Runner. The description is fitting; he zips from one idea to the next, never stopping. And his non-stop vibe is catchy, says Linda Brown Blakley, a spokesperson for Sears, who started stocking AMH Designs this spring.
“I think what impresses people about Anthony is that he had a passion for his customers and how they are going to react to his goods,” she says. “I have been in buyer meetings with Anthony and his personality is contagious. You just have to rest after a meeting with him.”
“I know I’m going to be everywhere. I’m going to transcend fashion,” says Hankins, who just keeps tapping other arenas.
Nothing’s off limits. “I want to do a walk-on for the Living Single show. They could do an AMH trunk show. Todd Oldham was featured on The Nanny, so why shouldn’t we do Living Single or Moesha?” he asks. “I have it all planned out. It could be fierce.
“Those Hollywood folks need to call me,” he adds. “There is no reason The Preacher’s Wife couldn’t have included an Anthony Mark Hankins hat line. She (Whitney Houston) should have a whole line of clothing. I would have her lookin’ good.”
In the midst of a flurry of ideas and a budding business, Hankins remains grounded. It’s as easy to talk to him now as when he first started. “We have a good time here. That is the only way we will reach higher ground,” he says. “I tell people to hang out with me, I’ll put a smile on your face.”
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