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Monday, August 11, 2025

Jacqui Koon How

by

2147 days ago
20190921

Sto­ry and pho­tos by

Serv­ing in the vine­yard of fash­ion and hav­ing pro­duced count­less top mod­els and beau­ty queens, Jacque­line Koon How, fond­ly called Aun­ty Jacqui, trans­ferred the ba­ton of stew­ard­ship to her grand­daugh­ter, Faith Ar­mour, re­cent­ly at the San Fer­nan­do City Hall Au­di­to­ri­um.

Dubbed “The Fi­nale” as the cur­tains were low­ered on Koon How’s tenure as di­rec­tor, and hav­ing placed her sig­na­ture on cer­tifi­cates for grad­u­ates of “the to­tal grad­u­a­tion” for the last time, she urged that her en­ter­prise be “trea­sured” and an­nounced her de­par­ture from the fore­front af­ter a 53-year stint.

Found­ed in the mid-60s, Koon How be­came a house­hold name as a trend­set­ter of styles, sub­se­quent to the birth of the fash­ion house House of Jacqui (HOJ). Koon How paved the way for many of T&T fash­ion­able women; some of who went on to rep­re­sent this coun­try in­ter­na­tion­al­ly at pres­ti­gious com­pe­ti­tions.

The HOJ equal­ly be­came a formable force and groomed some of the na­tion’s well-kept men and women, each step­ping in the in­deli­ble foot­steps and ex­pec­ta­tions of Koon How.

Now 74, and hold­er of the Hum­ming­bird Medal (Gold), re­ceived in 2004 for the de­vel­op­ment of beau­ty cul­ture and mas in T&T, Koon How said she has done it all.

Nur­tur­ing the big idea she had for re­tire­ment with her “broth­er,” fall­en mas king­pin Roland St George, Koon How said she woke up and re­alised she is go­ing to be 75 years old next May 29.

She said re­al­i­ty struck and, with St George de­ceased, she could not be self­ish and car­ry the HOJ lega­cy with her.

Shar­ing some de­part­ing words, Koon How said: “It was re­al­ly a plea­sure to work with these young peo­ple. They in­vig­o­rate me. So many times peo­ple asked me what will be­come of HOJ?

“And I would tell them I am very self­ish and the House of Jacqui dies with me.

“And then, I had a broth­er with whom I was ex­treme­ly close and we planned to en­joy our twi­light years to­geth­er; but, he got ill and died swift­ly. That made me be­come aware of my own mor­tal­i­ty and it set me think­ing; a lit­tle self­ish, a lit­tle con­ceit­ed; how can I de­prive T&T of HOJ? How can I al­low HOJ to die with me?

“I have en­er­gy to burn; so, I feel I come down here for­ev­er. I woke up and re­alised I am now 74 years old. On May 29 next year I will turn 75; we will have a big boat ride, a big fete for that one. I have no in­ten­tions of leav­ing you all in a hur­ry, I ain’t go­ing nowhere.”

Koon How said be­fore hand­ing over her dy­nasty to Ar­mour, a de­gree in man­age­ment grad­u­ate from UWI, her de­sire is that every­body got their cer­tifi­cates be­fore she did so.

By in­tro­duc­ing a new slate with new blood, ac­cord­ing to Koon How, in­cludes tal­ent and the ad­vance­ment of tech­nol­o­gy.

“So, we have trained tu­tors, and a styl­ist who is the boss. I would like to of­fi­cial­ly hand the name over to the new HOJ di­rec­tor.

“She has the pas­sion, she is the new face, next gen­er­a­tion Faith Ar­mour,” Koon How an­nounced.

Jok­ing­ly, Koon How in­di­cat­ed that Ar­mour will now fill the gen­er­a­tion gap and bring to the ta­ble what she bar­ley could man­age to do her­self, “switch on the cel­lu­lar phone. She will han­dle all the In­sta­gram, Twit­ter. I could bare­ly turn on the cell.

“New blood, I will be right there in the back­ground. She will have my ex­pe­ri­ence, my knowl­edge to back her up and teach her as much as I pos­si­bly can. This is the new and im­proved HOJ.”

In Ar­mour’s ac­cep­tance speech, she vowed to up­hold and car­ry the torch of Koon How’s lega­cy and pow­er­ful brand to it’s pin­na­cle.

Over 50 grad­u­ates re­ceived cer­tifi­cates in­clud­ing those from the sum­mer class 2019.

Look­ing to­wards her first year of re­tire­ment, Koon How said next May she will host her 75th birth­day boat ride as well as a grand show in Au­gust to com­mem­o­rate all HOJ mod­els ti­tled Tots and Teens.


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