• Women’s Wear Daily, Friday, February 20, 2009 11:15 AM

Roy Colton, 67, and Harry Bernard, 78 -- whose fashion and retail consultancy clients included Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, Fruit of the Loom, VF, Levi Strauss, Gap, Ocean Pacific and Perry Ellis -- committed double suicide on Feb. 7. Their bodies were found in the San Francisco apartment they shared. They had been life partners for 43 years, as well as business partners.

Friends and colleagues say the two may have been planning the suicide for some time because of health issues, Lisa Lockwood and David Moin report. Operations of the company have ceased, according to its Web site, which notes that there will be no memorial service. Contributions may be made in their memory to the charity of the donor's choice, it says.

Colton and Bernard recruited top executives and other managers, but their services also involved consumer research, brand building, management assessments and market analysis. Colton was the firm's president and CEO; Bernard was EVP and CMO. "They formed a relationship with you," Dawn Robertson, president of Sean John and former president of Old Navy, tells WWD. "They were warm, wonderful guys, and great communicators."

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