Judy Joannou offers wisdom to home economists interested in a career in fashion. Her father, an executive in the fashion industry introduced her to sewing and fashion design which suited her creative spirit. She graduated from Cornell University, in Apparel Design and studied abroad at the London College of Fashion. This led to her dream: becoming a fashion designer in New York City. At 23 she was travelling the world.

Several years later she met and married a Canadian, settled in Ashton and established her home-based business on a dime. Judy created one-of-a kind vests made from discarded upholstery samples and vintage buttons purchased at a garage sale, before re-purposing was a trend! Home sewers assembled them for her. Then she travelled throughout Ontario and sold them to boutiques and through the craft show circuit. As the business grew so did her collection, noted for mix and match high end fashions which she had produced in Toronto. After 26 years of being on the road she opened her first retail store in Almonte and introduced other brands to her offerings. In the Spring of 2020, nudged by the pandemic's forced store closure she upgraded her website to a full online store and brought the shop to her customers with video fashion shows. She continues to run both her retail store and website https://www.judyjoannoudesigns.ca

Judy’s Wisdom 

• Find your passion-what you love doing 
• Figure out the steps to get the ideal job
• Don’t give up
• Feel failure
• Be curious 
• Be a team player
• Meditate every day
• Be calm to solve problems
• Be honourable and kind
• Give back to the community
• Business can start on a dime
• Engage a mentor, now

Test Kitchens may be a thing of the past, but friendships made among Home Economists who worked in them have lasted for decades. Home Economists now are more informed and look to sustainability, farming, vulnerabilities and opportunities galore. The Home Economists like me, who worked in the Best Foods test kitchen, were about product promotion. That is not a bad thing and I can still make anything with a jar of Hellman's mayonnaise. 


My first test kitchen friend, Jane Carman, worked for Standard Brands in Montreal, and now Margaret Macdonald, whom I met just three years ago, worked for Manitoba Hydro. Strong women, women of science. We understand the losses we are facing in Home Economics. Let me plug in for our new Professional Practice Course soon to be launched. You ought to follow it; Sue McGregor, who wrote about the Home Ec ring, also read it — who knew? And the link here to Betty Crocker — my friend Ellie Topp told me she had a job offer there. 

Happy 40ieth Anniversary Ontario Home Economics Association (OHEA)

Passing the torch onto new and future Home Economists defines who I am as a Professional Home Economist (P.H.Ec.). 

It has been a privilege to live up to the ring pledge. 

The most important life changing skill I mastered at my first job when working for a large food company, was how to relate to our customers through relationship building and complaint handling. First, as a Home Economist and then Director of Consumer Services, I also developed technical skills in recipes, food styling, publishing and media relations. ​

Want to meet some of the amazing Professional Home Economists featured in the Through the Years Series?
Make sure to register for OHEA annual conference. This year the conference is being held at Brescia University College on March 23, 2019. For more information, visit the OHEA Conference website.

​Brief Background on Amy Whitson
I graduated from Brescia University College with a Bachelor of Science Honours Human Ecology in Food and Nutrition in 1999. I worked freelance in various roles and started my own personal chef company.

In 2001, I started working with Dana McCauley & Associates. In 2010, I purchased the company from Dana and became President and owner of The Test Kitchen Incorporated, a recipe development and consulting company. ​