[3] Antthony has been featured in Business Week Magazine (November 1997),[4] The Wall Street Journal (October 1995) and numerous other publications as a success story of a poor, African-American boy from a New Jersey factory town.
His first sewing machine cost $150 which he had loaned from a friend at the Elizabeth's Union County courthouse where he worked part-time as an administrative assistant.
[3] To earn the $10,000 tuition and secure a plane ticket to Paris, Antthony contacted Christy Ferer, a fashion correspondent with the Today Show to help get him exposure.
The national exposure opened doors for Antthony and from it an anonymous donation came in the mail which allowed him to secure a plane ticket to Paris.
[3] At the age of 21, returning to the United States in 1992, Anthony Mark Hankins joined JCPenney Corporation in California as the Quality Assurance Manager.
Within two months, he was promoted to the position of in-house designer in the Minority Supplier Development Division at JCPenney's corporate headquarters in Dallas.
The first article about the company ran in the July 2, 1994, issue of the Dallas Morning News headlined "Breaking Out of the Pattern" written by Maria Halkias.