By Rose Simpson
Jeanne Beker admits it’s difficult to part with the designer clothes she has been gifted by such legendary designers as Karl Lagerfeld and Valentino. Her closets are filled with gems she has acquired over her 40 year career as one of the world’s most recognized fashion influencers.
Each piece has a memory, a history, a texture that takes her back to a time and place that is precious to her, whether it’s a gown created by the legendary hand of a master, or a dress made lovingly by her mother for a school dance. Jeanne has closets full of fabric, handbags, shoes and glitter. She even wrote a book about them, Heart on My Sleeve: Stories from a Life Well Worn.
And soon Jeanne’s closet will be on display in the newly renovated Glenbow museum in Calgary, along with souvenirs from her extraordinary life. The retrospective, scheduled to open in 2027, will trace her roots from the daughter of Joseph and Bronia Beker, two Holocaust survivors, through her career as a globe-trotting journalist whose inquisitive mind and exuberant personality took her to concert halls and fashion shows around the world.
The retrospective, called Obsession: The Unscripted Life of Jeanne Beker and inspired by veteran designer and co-creator Paul Hardy, will pay homage to a woman whose work has influenced fashionistas in more than 130 countries and put Canada on the map as a fashion destination.
From Rock to Fashion
Canadians first took notice of Jeanne during the pioneer days of MuchMusic. She was the girl with the megawatt smile and twinkle in her eye who boldly interviewed Andy Summers of the Police on the edge of a bathtub and fearlessly fended off an inebriated Iggy Pop on her show, The NewMusic.
From the beginning, fashion was always on her mind. She carefully chose every outfit for each interview, whether it was wearing skin-tight jeans and a fetching top to woo the metal Gods or a demure plaid to interview Paul McCartney (who turned up wearing a complementary tartan).
Eventually, Jeanne parlayed her obsession with fashion into a successful art form, hosting and participating in a series of popular shows such as FashionTelevision, Project Runway and Style Matters.
“I have so many precious things,” she laughs when asked if there’s anything she has refused to rehome. “I had an Elsa Peretti silver cuff presented to me by a boyfriend after my marriage broke up, when I was such a broken person. That cuff empowered me and made me feel like Wonder Woman.”
Sadly, the cuff is now just a memory. She lost it while undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer at the Princess Margaret Hospital.
“I was devastated,” she recalls. “but I turned it around, and I thought it had served its purpose and it got me through some things and hopefully it’s now on the wrist of someone who picked it up.”
Paying Tribute to Her Parents
In addition to her fashion collection, the Calgary show will pay tribute to her parents. It will include an old trunk that travelled with them from Europe to Pier 21 in 1948, after they had spent three years in a displaced person’s camp. It will feature the kitchen radio where she and her sister spent their childhood listening to pop and rock and roll music on 1050 CHUM (where she later worked). And it’ll also showcase the television her dad bought in 1953. That TV holds a special place in Jeanne’s heart, because on its black and white screen she first saw Elvis and the Beatles.
“My parents paved the way for me because they had their youths nipped in the bud and because their own dreams were never realized,” she says. “I always felt it was up to me not only to have a good life but to have a fabulous life because they would be living vicariously through me.
“My mom always took me to ballet lessons and piano lessons and drama lessons. I had this incredible cultural immersion. It certainly shaped the way I chose to live my life and my passions in later life.”
There is one piece of history that won’t be in the collection. It is a simple gold signet ring she took from her mother’s pinky finger on her death bed. Bronia’s brother presented it to her in 1939, the day the war broke out. Sadly, her brother and other family members suffocated in a bunker hiding from the Nazis.
“My mom is still with me, no question,” Jeanne says, adding the ring never leaves her hand. “She’s with me every day and in every way. She’s become part of me, and that’s pretty wonderful.”
On Getting Older
At 74, Jeanne Beker continues to be a force within the fashion and entertainment industries she has helped define since the 1970s. She is in high demand as a public speaker, continues to star regularly on popular programs including Project Runway Canada and Style Matters, and writes numerous articles and columns for magazines.
“Some people feel as you get older that opportunities dwindle,” Jeanne says. “But it’s all about the way you frame things, the way you think about things. I’m adamant about being engaged. A lot of people retreat but the word ‘retire’ is a dirty word for me because I love my work so much. Why would I ever retire from something I thrive on doing?”
Breast Cancer as an Opportunity
Even discovering she had breast cancer four years ago didn’t slow her down. After she decided to share her diagnosis, Jeanne’s Instagram account exploded, and she received countless messages from people going through their own cancer journeys.
“It made me feel so less alone,” she explains, although she admits she never gets used to the constant parade of tests and checkups that have followed her. “I’m choosing to see this as an opportunity disguised as an inconvenience. It’s turned out to be the greatest opportunity because I have so much more to talk about. It’s actually opened a lot of doors.”
She admits going through chemotherapy and radiation wasn’t as much fun as sitting beside Lagerfeld at a runway show, but Jeanne managed to put her own spin on her journey. When she lost about 60 percent of her hair, her designer friends came to the rescue. Designer Louise Kennedy and Toronto milliner David Dunkley sent her jaunty little caps to wear and she hired a makeup artist to come to her house to get her ready for big events.
“It’s amazing what a little lipstick and makeup can do for the spirit,” she laughs. “I was going through something tough but I was being taken care of by the best team on the planet at the Mighty Princess Margaret, which is my temple of healing. Keeping a positive attitude is so much a part of the battle. I believe that if you can’t change the situation, at least you can change your mind. It’s the one choice we have—we can choose the attitude and the way we see a situation.”
Big Love at Long Last
A big part of Jeanne’s life is her relationship with her partner Iain MacInnes, a retired investment banker she met at age 63 at the McMichael Gallery near Toronto. They quickly moved in together, buying a house in the tiny artistic community of Warkworth, Ontario. It is a short drive from a large farm Jeanne bought years ago.
“When you get into a relationship at this time of your life, you have to speed things up,” she explains, adding Iain is four years younger. “It was electric when we met and we fell head over heels. He really appreciates what I do and supports me wholeheartedly.”
Jeanne commutes from the country to her Toronto home a few days a week. It’s a routine she has maintained for decades, even when her children, Bekky and Joey, were small and they first owned a cottage in Muskoka.
“The lifestyle I lead now is my total joy; it’s my salvation to have this duality, a country life and a city life,” she says. “I love the country so much. No matter where in the world I’m travelling, even if I couldn’t get there as much as I wanted to, I could still sit in the front row of some fabulous fashion show in Paris and just close my eyes and think of my gorgeous farm. In my mind, everything would settle down and I’d feel calm and satisfied.”
Her daughter Bekky now lives in the old farmhouse she bought before meeting Iain, while the couple share an acre and a half overlooking a pond.
“It’s very private and it’s close to the village. In less than five minutes, I can walk into this gorgeous village and it’s rife with the best little shops. It’s charming, like a storybook village.”
Dream Weaver
Jeanne is proud of her role as a worldwide trendsetter in fashion. Her show, FashionTelevision influenced generations of young people to become interested fashion.
“My show really inspired young people who felt out of it, like queer kids in small towns,” she explains. “It was the first to open the window into that glamorous world. We inspired legions of young people to get into the fashion business. For a lot of gay guys, it was there salvation.”
She is hoping that her museum show will continue to inspire young people to dream big.
“My reason for doing all of this was because I’m a child of immigrants who came with nothing. They encouraged me to dream and believe in my dreams, to work hard and never give up.”
Heart on My Sleeve, Stories from a Life Well Worn, is available at bookstores or on Amazon.ca. The retrospective, Obsession: The Unscripted Life of Jeanne Beker at the Glenbow will be made possible thanks to a donation to the museum from the Shaw family. glenbow.org
