J Kenyon Cory

Author Biography

J. Kenyon Cory

Growing up in the Virginia countryside outside Washington D.C., a child of the '60s, J. Kenyon Cory was close to the "inside the Beltway" world of power politics. Along with power came the trappings of appearance over substance. Riots raged in the Nation's Capital, and jungles burned in Vietnam.

But the players on the world stage had to look just so.

Underneath the conflict, there was another world, that of fashion.

An indifferent student, he was attracted to apparel, taking the bus throughout Northern Virginia to every better men's store along the route, spending entire days getting to know shopkeepers and the brands they carried.

Long before he was old enough to drive, he knew the top-shelf stores inside and out.

He managed by way of stellar test scores and a knack for writing, to get himself into the University of Virginia, graduating with Distinction in 1976 having avoided the draft with a lottery number of 366…leap year luck.

He soon found himself working for the top designer-driven store in Washington, Garfinckel's, becoming the Men's Tailored Clothing buyer after working his way through the fashion gauntlet. His clients were the likes of the Kennedys.

New York beckoned and he was recruited by one of the most prestigious suit makers in America, moving to the Big Apple seeking bigger things.

It became clear that there was an unrealized talent for design. After making his mark in merchandising for prominent menswear labels, he broke out and started his own.

Kenyon Ridge launched and he was on his way to becoming a bona fide designer. Hundreds of stores and two hundred nights a year on the road all over America and Europe, he knew the finest merchants and most luxurious fabrics from which he created his lines. From London to Como, Italy he scoured the fashion landscape for inspiration and quality manufacture.

The culmination of thirty years in the fashion trenches, regrettably the financial crisis of 2008 brought an end to his brand, but not to his passion.

Once again working for others like Nordstrom and Brooks Brothers, he recaptured his game creating a new division for Brooks which he headed until that venerable brand was sold.

It was time to turn to his other creative outlet-writing.

J. Kenyon Cory had made it through the tumultuous 80s and 90s and lived to tell about it.

His new novel, Threadbare, is about the journey through what some have called "The Golden Age of Fashion", seen through the eyes of an engagingly flawed designer, Buck Walters, whose search for perfection takes a terrible toll. His search for love, many romances, rise to great heights, and ultimate fall from grace amidst the hubris of the times, make for a compelling narrative of human struggle.