Joseph Picone; Longtime Head of Evan-Picone Clothes

Joseph Picone, 83, longtime head of the Evan-Picone women’s clothing line, died last Saturday at his home in New York City.

The company was founded in 1949, when Charles Evans came to Picone with a skirt design that he wanted to sell. Picone, a tailor, made the sample overnight. The men went into business, and the Evan-Picone brand of conservative, timeless sportswear quickly became a success.

It was sold to Revlon for $12 million in 1962, but Picone bought the company back four years later. In 1981, he sold it again, this time to Palm Beach Inc. He remained chairman until he retired in 1983.

In 1987, he left retirement to become chairman of MaxMara USA Inc., a subsidiary of the Italian designer and manufacturing company MaxMara Group, until 1992.

Picone entered the garment business as a boy in his native Sicily. By the late 1930s, he had immigrated to the United States and opened a tailor shop, specializing in men’s trousers. He was supplying trousers to stores such as Brooks Brothers in the post-World War II years when he met Evans.