Eyes for Fashion

Yvonne Wilson’s early style icon was a pastor’s wife, the mother of her best friend. “She was very fashion forward in the late ’70s and ’80s,” says Yvonne, who grew up in Evansville, Indiana, and saved her money to buy copies of Vogue.

At 14, she worked in a mall at a McDonald’s frequented by a manager from a local department store. The manager eventually hired Yvonne, who moved from salesgirl to visual merchandiser and eventually up to assistant manager.

A marriage brought her to Fort Worth, where she had two children. Her daughter likes fashion; her son loves it.

Today, her son is her muse. Parker Kit Hill earned a scholarship to study with the Joffrey Ballet in New York City and found himself in his element. Embraced by the fashion world for his ability to wear anything, thanks to his slim frame, and his bold personality, he has modeled for top designers. “I knew early on he was going to be different, and I gave him the freedom to be himself,” she says. “I was always the geeky one growing up, too. I got the nickname Yvonne 4 Eyes a long time ago, since I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 8.”

The reference to her eyewear has stuck, but now she embraces it as part of her look.

She also has honed her own sense of style, one that mixes vintage finds with current designer pieces, which she can spot a mile away in a thrift store. She plans special outfits first by seeing them in her mind, and then finding them out in the universe.

Everything she wears must suit her personal aesthetic. “They also have to fit,” she says with a laugh. “I’m all about comfort, too.”

She has always styled friends and co-workers, and time spent working at Anthropologie taught her a lot about how clothes fit. “It’s important to know what works for your body and what doesn’t. I also spend a lot of time thinking about accessories: a killer pair of shoes, cool jewelry.”

Yvonne turns 55 this month and has just been named in-house fashion stylist at LTO in Fort Worth (she’s an office manager by day at an engineering firm). She has been working with Jana Clark to give the Fort Worth shop more of a fashion identity to accompany the home products and decor it now offers. “We’re working on a capsule collection and bringing in a lot of fun, wearable pieces. I just want to make  sure women feel good about themselves.”