INDUSTRY EXEC JOE CECIL HAS DIED

MR is saddened to report the passing of Joe Cecil, a beloved industry executive who died last Wednesday after being hit with COVID-19 on top of Parkinson’s Disease. He was 82.

Says his good friend Stan Tucker, who worked with him at Saks Fifth Avenue, “He had been living in Palm Springs, California for the past two years. He had Parkinson’s Disease but was doing okay until he got hit with COVID-19 just after the first of the month. It hit him very hard and he passed quickly.” Tucker noted that Cecil was “a great guy, smart, an excellent merchant and a true gentleman, loved and respected by so many in the industry.”

Cecil was born in Knoxville Tennessee and received a BS degree from the University of Tennessee and a Masters from Ohio U. According to another good friend and colleague, John Minahan, “I believe he moved to New York to work in show business but somehow ended up working at Saks Fifth Avenue, moving up the ranks. He then managed the Saks store in Chicago before launching Mallards, a fine menswear store backed by investors. After that, he managed a Zegna store in Chicago before coming back to NYC to head up the dress furnishings division of Burberry.

“Stan Tucker recommended Joe for the job,” recalls Minahan. “We had been searching for the right person and Joe was perfect. First of all, everyone knew and loved him. Second, he understood the social side of being an NYC menswear exec better than anyone: the fundraisers, the parties; he was right at home whereas I was lost. Also, he had an intense understanding of blending innovative with understandable. And he had an uncanny knowledge of the inside workings of department stores. Usually, when you hire a new person, you spend a year teaching him. In this case, I was learning more than I was teaching.”

Says Holly Adam, former fashion director at Bloomingdale’s, “Back before retailing was cut-throat, we all traveled as a pack. At the end of the workday, we dined, played, and laughed together like one big dysfunctional family. Joe was an integral part of the pack!’ And from Kim Cihlar, “Joe was a lovely personification of the menswear industry back in the day. He was someone I could always count on for insightful quotes and trend coverage. I loved seeing him these past few years at our MensWearNetwork events; he will be greatly missed.”

John Kammeier considered Cecil a special friend. “I met Joe when I was a buyer at Britches of Georgetown and he worked with a neckwear company that made our private label. Usually in this business, once you switch to the wholesale side and no longer have a pencil, vendors drop you in no time. But Joe proved to be a true friend, offering guidance throughout my career moves from Arnold Brant to Randa to Nick Graham. We’d meet for dinner a few times a month and he was always a caring friend. I greatly admired his energy, vigor, and positive attitude. He’d always come up with solutions rather than complain about problems. I’m so glad I got to visit with him last February after the Vegas show.”

Notes Joseph Abboud, “Joe Cecil was a kind, caring human being, an extraordinary gentleman in an industry where few remain. Let us use his passing as a reminder of how we in the menswear business were meant to treat each other.”