Roger Forsythe, 36, vice president and men`s design director for the Perry Ellis Group, helped put new spirit in the New York menswear firm and increase its sales at a rate of $15 million a year since joining it in 1988.
He was also known for going public in August with the information that he had HIV-related cancer.
A resident of Manhattan, he died Sunday in New York University Medical Center of lymphatic cancer.
Mr. Forsythe was in Chicago in May to preside over a fashion show at Marshall Field & Co. Oak Brook store.
His practical sense of fashion was illustrated by comments he made to the Tribune at that time.
”My pet peeve is men who think looking good is a lack of masculinity,”
he said. ”Slovenliness indicates a lack of self-respect. Looking good is far less complicated than most men think. You don`t have to be a slave to fashion magazines, just look around you. Focus on someone who looks good and figure out why their outfit works.”
A native of Missouri, he graduated from the University of Houston. He then went to New York, where he attended the Fashion Institute of Technology. He designed men`s wear, children`s sportswear and ties before being tapped by the Perry Ellis Group.
The firm`s founder, Perry Ellis, had died from an AIDS-related illness in 1986, but the firm denied at the time he had had AIDS.
Firm officials, however, commended Mr. Forsythe for his announcement in August.
”My primary aim is to give hope to others,” Mr. Forsythe said. ”I simply could not not tell people.”
Survivors include his father, John; and two brothers.
