MIAMI – Kingsley Cooper, who helped put Jamaican fashion on the map through his Pulse Investments Limited, died in Miami on June 18 at age 71.
Kingsley Cooper
A statement from the company, which he founded in 1980, confirmed his death at HCA Kendall Hospital.
“It is with the greatest sadness that Pulse Investments Limited announces that Chairman and founder Kingsley Cooper CD died peacefully this evening. We ask that his immediate family be afforded privacy as they try to come to terms with Kingsley’s passing.”
Born in Kingston, Cooper was a graduate of the Norman Manley Law School. Five years after graduating from that institution, he and fellow lawyer Hilary Phillips started Pulse which had considerable success with models who made their names internationally.
Pulse Investments Limited Featured Models
Kimberley Mais, Althea Laing (who appeared on the cover of Essence), Jeneil Williams (Vogue covergirl) and Alicia Burke, are some of the models who were nurtured by Cooper’s company.
Cooper was also a leading player in the annual Caribbean Fashion Week which started in 2001 and was last held in 2019. It helped expose the work of designers from the region as well as models.
Pulse Investments Limited’s headquarters in Kingston is also the location for the Peter Tosh Museumwhich opened in 2016. One of Tosh’s last performances took place at that venue in 1983 on the Superjam show promoted by Cooper.
Kingsley Cooper received the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander in 2007 from Jamaica’s government for “pioneering, defining and developing the modeling industry, locally, regionally and internationally.”
