Cathy Horyn, the influential fashion critic of the New York Times, has resigned, it was announced Friday.
The 57-year-old journalist said she was leaving to spend more time with her ailing partner.
“It is with both deep sadness over her departure and immense gratitude for the legacy she leaves behind that we announce that Cathy Horyn, the paper’s chief fashion critic since 1999, is leaving The Times,” Executive Editor Jill Abramson and Styles editor Stuart Emmrich said in an internal memo to staff on Friday.
“Cathy’s reasons for leaving are personal ones, to spend more time with her partner, Art Ortenberg, who has had health problems, and whom she feels would benefit greatly from her increased presence at home,” the memo noted.
“Cathy will be sorely missed by all of us in Styles and by the paper as a whole. But she is not leaving us completely: She will continue to work on a project that is dear to her heart: A book to be published by Rizzoli that chronicles how The New York Times has covered fashion from the 1850s to the first decades of the 21st century. No doubt it will be a great read,” the memo also said.
A Midwesterner by birth and education, Horyn previously worked for the Detroit News and the Washington Post.
The news was reported first by Women’s Wear Daily.