Kingsley Cooper: The ‘Pulse’ that energised J’can fashion and entertainment

For more than four decades, Kingsley Copper served in multiple executive roles at Pulse Investments Limited. Through the company, his contribution to national development helped shape the country’s entertainment, fashion, and real estate industries.

The noted fashion and entertainment trailblazer, attorney-at-law, and founder and chairman of Pulse Investments Limited, died at the HCA Kendall Hospital in Florida on June 18 surrounded by his family. He was 71.

“We mourn the loss of an innovator, extraordinary leader, father, husband, and visionary. The Cooper family is immensely grateful for his life and legacy, and we thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support,” said his family in a release.

Kingsley Cooper was born in Kingston on June 3, 1953. His father, Daniel Cooper, worked in a clothing factory in England, and upon returning to Jamaica, had a tailoring business on Langston Road. The Cooper patriarch’s relationship to the arts evidently impacted his children. Today, Donnette Cooper is world-renowned for her quilted artwork while Dr Carolyn Cooper is the esteemed academic of literary and cultural studies who taught at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus, for 36 years.

Still, as Kingsley Cooper recalled in a 2023 interview on The Alrick Show, it was while a student at Kingston College that he began to invest a bit more in his creative endeavours. One of his early influences was his art instructor, the renowned Jamaican artist Alexander Cooper. Nevertheless, while he cultivated this love for art at the all-boys’ institution, he also excelled academically and served as president of the debating society and was also head boy. Upon graduating, he was among the first group to study law at The UWI Mona campus. While completing his law education, he still found time to pursue creative endeavours. Throughout his tertiary education, he was head of the Guild Press and editor of the law magazine. When he graduated in 1975, he worked as an attorney-at-law through his practice – Kingsley Lawton Cooper and Co. Then, in 1980, he joined hands with another attorney, Hillary Phillips, to create a business venture that would completely change the beat of Jamaica.

PULSE: THE FUTURE HEARTBEAT OF LOCAL ENTERTAINMENT

Pulse was founded in January 1980 with Cooper and Phillips as directors where they had dual duties as chairman and secretary, respectively. According to an October 9, 1980, profile of the company published in The Gleaner, it was “formed with the main objectives of promoting and producing top-quality local and international entertainment packages both locally and abroad”. In just a few months of their founding, one of their most lauded events was the opening of the Allen Bailey Disco Fashion Spectacular, held at The Pegasus hotel in April. At the end of the year, they produced a major Christmas concert that featured top international recording stars.

By July of the next year, Pulse made local headlines due to STEPHANIE. STEPHANIE was a “fashion-cum-cocktail-cum-buyers” event held in the hills of Gordon Town. As Cooper told The Gleaner in a July 12, 1981, interview, STEPHANIE “had its roots in a desire to present high fashion from both local and international designers, as well as everyday things, in an atmosphere of elegance blended with fun”.

On September 20, 1980, daughter Safia Cooper was born to Kingsley Cooper and Marcia Reid, an accomplished high school teacher.

In 1982, Kingsley Cooper spearheaded the company’s Superjam stage show. It featured three acts each night over three days. One of its most notable stagings was in December 1983. It featured the likes of Beres Hammond, Steel Pulse, and Dennis Brown on night one. One night two, it was Leroy Sibbles, Chalice, and Black Uhuru. The final night featured The Skatalites, Gregory Issacs, and Peter Tosh. Tosh’s 1983 performance, which was lauded as one of his best, was his last live set in Jamaica.

Still, Cooper’s lasting legacy would be in 1982 when Pulse made an announcement that changed Jamaica’s beauty and fashion industry.

COOPER AND THE PULSE MODEL AGENCY

In mid-1982, the company established the Pulse Model Agency. According to the company’s July press release: “It has established a modelling and self-improvement school for the training of models to an international level and to offer self-improvement courses to women generally.”

The school was located at 3 Ardenne Road, where the initial director was Beverly Corke. A year later, Pulse established the Caribbean’s first model search - the Jamaica Fashion Model Competition. The first-ever winner was Denise Sloley, with Jheanell Azan being the runner-up. Both women, led by Hilary Phillips, went to Paris for prêt-à-porter and model agency ‘go sees’ that year thus becoming the Caribbean’s first-ever delegation to a fashion capital, aimed at model placement and development. In 1984, Simone Walters took the crown, and in 1985, it was Althea Laing. Laing went on to be on the cover of Essence’s April 1986 issue, a first for the Caribbean.

On September 8, 1985, Pulse put on Pulse Revue. The show at the time featured the largest group of models ever used in a fashion show in Jamaica. With all of these achievements, Cooper, in his capacity as chairman of Pulse, collected the Bols Liqueurs Fashion Excellence Award at the local Fashion Awards Excellence Awards held on April 27, 1986.

In November 1988, it was announced that the Pulse was granted the franchise to stage the Jamaica leg of the Look of the Year competition. It was the first time that an agency from a developing country was awarded such a franchise. At the time, Look of the Year was the world’s largest model search and attracted over 100,000 entries from over 30 countries. At the same time, Pulse was also awarded the franchise for the Miss Jamaica Universe Pageant. From the 1989 staging onwards, Pulse went on to produce four of the top-10 finalists – Sandra Foster, Kimberley Mais, Nicole Haughton, and Christine Straw – at the international pageant. In 1993, Pulse evolved from Pulse Entertainment Group Limited to Pulse Investments Limited. In the same year, it was listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange. This made Pulse the first entertainment company to be listed on a stock exchange in the Caribbean.

In 2001, the company celebrated its 21st anniversary, and throughout the year, special events were planned throughout. One of these special events was the induction of Nicola Vassel into Pulse’s Fashion and Beauty Hall of Fame. Vassel, who at this time, was one of the region’s most celebrated international supermodels, was discovered by Cooper while she was still a student at Campion College. Previous inductees included Kimberly Mais, Angela Neil, Althea Laing and Lisa Hanna. Then, there was Caribbean Fashion Week TV Monthly – Pulse TV show hosted by supermodel Lois Samuels, which first aired on Television Jamaica on April 27, 2001.

Still, the highlight of this anniversary was Caribbean Fashion Week (CFW). Cooper, in his capacity as the executive producer of the event, stated that CFW was to “show the region as a place of style” and “one that reflects the region’s multicultural ethnicity, tempered by warm sunshine and cool breeze”. The event was held in November and shot on location at Villa Ronai and the CFW Exhibition Hall at the Hilton. By May 2002, the production footage of CFW was accessible to viewers in over 50 countries of North America, Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Under Cooper’s chairmanship, Pulse also extended their TV show offerings to include Caribbean Model Search and Best of CFW.

For his efforts through Pulse Investments Limited, Kingsley Cooper was inducted into the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander in 2007 for “pioneering, defining, and developing the modelling industry, locally, regionally, and internationally”.

By the 2010s, Pulse models had made great strides on the international market. Notable recent models include Jaunel McKenzie, Carla Campbell, Nadine Willis, Oraine Barrett, Nell Robinson, Gaye McDonald, Jeneil Williams, Sedene Blake, and Alicia Burke. Many have been featured on the covers of Vogue, Esquire, I-D, and GQ magazines while others have had contracts with Victoria’s Secret and appeared in Gucci campaigns. They have also been a staple on major runways in New York, Paris, and Milan.

OTHER VENTURES

In 2013, the company revamped Superjam. Their line-up included Chronixx, Lady Saw, Sizzla, and Busy Signal. Still, Cooper would take pride in the 1983 staging of the show, and inspired by Peter Tosh’s performance, partnered with the musician’s estate to establish a museum. Today, the Peter Tosh Museum is located at the Pulse Complex. Since its opening, the Peter Tosh Museum has been a go-to spot for locals and international tourists. The company has also held the Color Festival and the Peter Tosh Music Festival.

Cooper also had another reason to celebrate in 2013. He and long-term partner Romae Gordon welcomed son Cole Gordon Cooper on May 15, 2013.

In 2016, Cooper stepped down as CEO and his daughter, Safia Cooper, was appointed to the role. However, Kingsley Cooper stayed on as chairman and director of special projects, through which he oversaw the expansion of the hospitality segment and real estate development. Under his guidance, Pulse entered the real estate market. The Pulse Centre located along Trafalgar Road has been developed into a 60-unit mix of shops, offices, and beauty-services outlets. The area is also home to Pulse Rooms - a 26-unit mix of guest rooms and additional office facilities. In 2022, the company put on the market 30 luxurious, eco-friendly homes at Villa Ronai in St Andrew, which sold out soon after.

By the 2020s, Cooper was supported by managing directors, Safia Cooper and Romae Gordon, with a board of directors that included Jeffery Cobham, Eleanor Brown, Lois Sherwood (later Pulse’s first director emerita), and the company’s co-founder, then soon-to-be retired Justice Hilary Phillips.

LEGACY

Cooper’s lifework through Pulse Investments Limited would surely go on to inspire a generation of West Indians in the entertainment, fashion, and real estate industry. However, his legacy extends to the wider society, especially Jamaica’s. In a black-majority country that has still not confronted how colonialism has shaped its society, Cooper’s legacy is one that challenged those colonial shackles. As his older sister, Dr Carolyn Coooper, wrote in a 2018 Gleaner article:

“In Jamaica, the dominant models of beauty have been ‘out of many, one’. Brown! Pulse’s modelling aesthetic has, undoubtedly, challenged the norms of old-fashioned beauty contests. Caribbean Fashion Week is a stage on which black models can confidently strut their stuff, affirming the beauty of the black body in full adornment.”

Kingsley Cooper is survived by his partner Gordon and children Safia and Cole.

J.T. Davy is a member of the historical and political content collective, Tenement Yaad Media, where she co-produces their popular historical podcast, Lest We Forget. She is also a writer at the regional collective, Our Caribbean Figures. Send feedback to jordpilot@hotmail.com and entertainment@gleanerjm.com.