Paul Roth; Fashion Consultant Promoted California Apparel

Paul Roth, 72, fashion consultant who promoted California apparel. After serving in the Army in France during World War II, Roth remained to study art at Academy Julien in Paris. He became the first American to work in haute couture there, assisting Jeanne Lanvin and Christian Dior and writing about postwar redevelopment of the French fashion industry for a U.S. apparel industry magazine. Returning to the United States, he served as fashion editor of Esquire for 15 years, greatly enhancing the importance of men’s fashion and toiletries. As a fashion consultant in the 1960s and ‘70s, Roth developed clothing collections and staged fashion shows featuring California labels for the fiber companies Milliken, Celanese and Hoechst, which introduced Trevira. He later served as fashion director at Gentlemen’s Quarterly and California Men’s Stylist magazine. In North Hollywood, Roth became a major fund-raiser for the National Council on Alcoholism and Drugs. On Monday in Los Angeles of complications after surgery.