Jodi Holman

Jodi Weiss Holman grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She inherited her mom’s love for fashion that drew them both to make frequent visits to New York City, a mere 80 miles away. Her mom graduated from Syracuse University with a major in home economics. “That’s what they called it back then. She took pattern making classes and made her own clothes. We went to New York a lot.”

Right from the start, Jodi loved everything about New York. “I loved people-watching. I was fascinated by the world of fashion. I loved everything I saw—the beauty, the aesthetics. I wanted to surround myself with it.”

Jodi also loved nature and the outdoors, so it’s not totally surprising that she wound up going to Fort Lewis College in Durango. “My uncle was an orthopedic surgeon in Cortez who worked for the public health service on a reservation after the Vietnam War. He encouraged me to check it out.” She was a humanities major and, like many Colorado college kids, she skied. A lot.

In addition to loving New York, she also loved Paris and everything French. At 16, she was an exchange student in France. During her time at Fort Lewis, her French teacher became one of her mentors. After college, she went to France and worked briefly as an au pair for three kids, ages 1, 3 and 6. However, she soon realized that what she really wanted to do was travel.

“I came close to staying in France. I loved it so much and there was a guy who wanted to get serious,” she said, “but I was 22 and not ready to settle down.” She went on to Greece, but ultimately knew she wanted to return to the U.S. and live in New York.

She moved to New York, hit the pavement and sent out resumes. A friend of her sister’s was head of sales for designer Mary McFadden. He traveled frequently and offered Jodi his apartment to stay in while he was away. He also had a lead on a job with a textile company that represented French fabrics. The company had a women’s apparel division and a home furnishing division. Jodi applied and was hired by the owner, Yves Gonnet, to work in women’s fashion. While she worked there, she studied textile science at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The company worked with many high-end fashion designers helping them find fabrics for their collections and Jodi traveled often to Paris and Milan. “I loved the logistics and resourcing as well as the glamour,” she said.

When Yves wanted to get out of the apparel end of the business, Jodi had been there six years. She and another employee took it over, renamed it Horne & Weiss Ltd., and made it their own. They started adding Italian, Swiss and German fabrics. “We were very successful in that male-dominated world.”