Jill Fairchild — who in her quiet way was as much of a force, and had as much of an impact, as her late husband John B. Fairchild, WWD’s legendary editorial director and publisher — died June 25 at age 94. They were a couple who perfectly complemented one another and who, at the time of his death in 2015, had been married 64 years.
A slim, beautiful woman for whom the words “elegant” and “erudite” seemed to have been invented, when she walked into a room there was something striking about her quietly understated style and composed presence, even into her late age, that exemplified her father’s and grandfather’s military backgrounds. There was nothing flashy about either her clothes — a mix of famed designer labels and exotic finds — or her homes, which over the years stretched from New York to Nantucket, London to Gstaad. Yet everything — from the food to the flowers to the furnishings — was always just so in how they were arranged or served.
She was, simply, a perfectionist, taking delight in both the smallest things as well as the biggest — from the stunning intricacy of a bird’s feather to a breathtaking artwork in
A slim, beautiful woman for whom the words “elegant” and “erudite” seemed to have been invented, when she walked into a room there was something striking about her quietly understated style and composed presence, even into her late age, that exemplified her father’s and grandfather’s military backgrounds. There was nothing flashy about either her clothes — a mix of famed designer labels and exotic finds — or her homes, which over the years stretched from New York to Nantucket, London to Gstaad. Yet everything — from the food to the flowers to the furnishings — was always just so in how they were arranged or served.
She was, simply, a perfectionist, taking delight in both the smallest things as well as the biggest — from the stunning intricacy of a bird’s feather to a breathtaking artwork in
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