Anna Berta Huling Siciliano

Anna Berta Huling Siciliano, Fashion Designer, passed away, at home, in Los Angeles, Calif. on January 25, 2024, after complications from a decade-long journey with early-onset Alzheimer's Disease. She was 62.



Anna was born August 23, 1961, in Albuquerque, N.M. to Clinton and Elizabeth "Betsy" (Huff) Huling. The family moved to Stockton, Calif. where both her parents worked as educators and Anna graduated from Edison High School.



During elementary school, her mother enrolled Anna and her sister in Singer sewing lessons where a passion for fashion was born. She sewed a lined brown suit that first summer and won ribbons for her work thereafter. Anna graduated with a Bachelor's degree in sociology from San Francisco State University where she kept a sewing machine in her dorm room. She eventually moved to southern California, working in an administrative role for The Limited, a clothing retailer.



A fortuitous move, Anna became part of the exciting fashion world around Melrose Avenue in L.A. In the early '90s, she set roots down in the Mid-Wilshire district where the rest of her story would unfold. Housemates John Cherpas, a designer, and her sister, Shirley, set up their cottage industry design space on 6th Street.



She sold her designs every Sunday at Melrose Market, a weekly open-air affair. This led to her first order of t-shirts for Comme des Fous boutique on Robertson Boulevard.

She worked as an assistant designer for Joe Dahan of Joe's Jeans, under his early label, Hippie, and for retailer Rated R. She parlayed a hefty payday styling a TV commercial into seed money laying the foundation of her eponymous label.



In business just two years, Anna won the California Fashion Industry's "Rising Star Award" in 1996. She was, soon thereafter, sponsored by Cotton Incorporated in the production of subsequent lines. She made regular appearances in Vogue, Seventeen and the Los Angeles Times where her designs were worn by Naomi Campbell, Liv Tyer and Mila Kunis and styled for TV episodes of Melrose Place.



The starlets of the time favored her sexy and sophisticated body conscious creations. She developed an enduring reputation through the production of her line, produced out of studios on Los Angeles Street. The Anna Huling Collection was sold internationally at numerous shops including Fred Segal, Lisa Kline, Barneys, Calypso, Scoop NYC, Holt Renfrew and The Ginza in Tokyo.

Her most enduring marks on '90s fashion included a low-rise, boot cut pant, and contemporary Western voile ruffled blouses.



She married writer Stephen Siciliano in Santa Monica on Oct. 13, 2001. Her son Wesley was born 18 months later as Anna's focus turned to family life and she took on staff jobs designing lingerie for Honeydew Intimates, Playboy, as well as street wear for Von Dutch and Material Girl.



She was proof one could be nice and succeed outright in a rough and tumble business.



When Anna wasn't designing, she could be found cheering her son on at Little League games and French horn concerts or accompanying her husband to plays, gallery openings and fashion shows.

Anna was a complete woman, entrepreneur, wife and mother who was kind, spiritual and intellectual before and during her journey with Alzheimer's. She was shaped by early cultural experiences such as attending the Monterey Jazz Festival with her father and living in Sicily for a year. Her family life was lived in a warm love she herself envisioned, worked for, and forged.



Anna was her family's North Star and the pride of the Hulings.

She will be ever loved by her caregiver and devoted partner of 26 years, Stephen, beloved son Wesley, constant feline companion Mr. Yellow, dearest mother Betsy, whom she made many a bespoke outfit for, cherished siblings Shirley Huling and Clinton Huling, loving relatives and a tribe of dear friends accumulated over a fruitful, carefully crafted life. She was predeceased by her father in 1985. Sincere thanks are extended to Home Again Home Care for sending Maria Segura who became Anna's dear friend for the last two years, and to Assisted Hospice, for ensuring Anna's peaceful passage in the comfort of her home.

A celebration of her life is planned for later in the year.