Cotton's Kistler to Retire
Dorothy Kistler, the ebullient retail marketing director for Cotton Inc.’s West Coast office is retiring after 32 years with the company.
Kistler’s last day in Cotton Inc.’s California Market Center office is Aug. 1. Her retirement plans include conducting marketing consulting work. An avid—though, by her own assessment, not skilled—golfer, Kistler also intends to launch a line of golf-related gifts.
She is in the process of building a house in Pinehurst, N.C., which she became familiar with during her many years attending Cotton Inc.’s annual denim conference in the region. She described the town, which will host the U.S. Open in 2005, as a “mecca for golf.”
A Seattle native, Kistler got her start in the fashion and textile business with Celanese Acetate as the company’s fashion coordinator for the Northwest region. The job took her to Los Angeles and then to New York. In 1971, she made the jump to Cotton Inc.—and back to Los Angeles—when she took a job managing the company’s fabric library.
“We maintain this office because of the importance of the fabric library,” she said. “Because of the location—it’s convenient for the market—people can come up and source efficiently.”
Kistler moved up the ranks at Cotton Inc. to manager of the Los Angeles office. Eventually, she was named director of retail marketing for the West Coast.
Along the way, she developed many contacts in the industry who became lifelong friends, she said.
“I’m going to miss my friends in the industry—not just here in L.A. but in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco” and all across the country, she said. “I’ve enjoyed the challenges presented by working with Cotton Inc. The job has evolved over the years, and it changed with the times. That made it very interesting. So, even though it’s been 32 years in one company, there was really a lot of variety in the work.”
Cotton Inc. will send Yanira Bugarin from the New York office to serve as manager of global product marketing for the West Coast. Bugarin will share the office with Cassandra Durant-Hamm. A New York staffer, Andrea Samber, will pick up Kistler’s retail marketing duties. —Alison A. Nieder
