JoAnn Lopez was born JoAnn Horns in 1937. Her father was an art professor at a number of different universities, so the family moved around a lot. The most important time for JoAnn creatively was the time she spent working on her Master of Fine Arts degree at UCLA. While there she developed her sense of style as an abstract painter, creating works in oil and watercolor.
It was through a chance encounter in 1964 with the owner of Chequer West, a boutique on Hollywood Boulevard, that JoAnn started selling garments on consignment to the public. JoAnn’s dresses featured an exuberant mixture of textiles of various textures, colors and patterns, including those that she designed and screen-printed herself. The yoke pattern across the upper chest, inspired by children’s clothes, allowed for heavier pieces to hang from it, with lighter fabrics flowing down from there. At the time – the mid-1960s, shorter dresses were popular, so initially, that is what she made, but soon she started creating longer pieces that she described as, “hippy dresses for rich ladies.”
At about the same time JoAnn started selling garments through Chequer West, she had a number of fashion shows where she developed a private clientele. She gained a word-of-mouth following from her designs being featured in magazines, movies, or spotted being worn around town by her many celebrity clients that included Elizabeth Taylor, Carol Burnett, Sharon Tate, Lilly Tomlin, Joan Mondale, and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Eventually, her dresses and other garments were sold through Bonwit Teller stores in New York and Beverly Hills. Even though during her peak she produced about a 150 garments per year, all of the dresses, jackets and vests JoAnn created were handmade by her alone, and there are few pieces in circulation, making them quite collectible. JoAnn estimates she has made close to several hundred pieces.
In the late 1990s she moved to Dixon, New Mexico where she showed her art in studio tours under her maiden name, JoAnn Horns. Although she stopped making garments in the mid-1990s, she continued to create art pieces using textiles until 2010. JoAnn considered herself a fine artist above all else, and wanted to return to doing more traditional mediums like watercolors and abstract textile work.
Written by Tracey Peyton (JoAnn’s son), edited by Ranch Queen Vintage
