Patrick Kelly: A Designer to Know

As I was driving home and the radio host was giving a Black History fact and it featured the late designer Patrick Kelly. I did not know who the designer was prior to listening to the radio spot. 


I found his life story inspiring and it makes me want to keep pressing forward on my fashion journey!


FT

Via Cabbi Arts

I put together two different bios for the designer: 

Patrick Kelly was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA. He attended Jackson State University where he studied art history.
He worked with a tailor in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, before moving to New York in 1976 to study at Parsons School of Design.

n 1979, he went to Paris and began his career in the fashion business by designing and selling cut-out cotton tube dresses, on the pavements of the city. He soon has a large following for his whimsical clothes. He also did a stint at a Rive Gauche boutique and designed for Benetton. Kelly also became a costume designer for Le Palais nightclub.
Huge buttons, abbreviated hemlines and a talent for tromp l'oeil, marked him as a natural New Yorker in Paris. His colourful clothes were a product of his Mississippi childhood and his long-held fascination with antique clothes.

He so impressed his French compatriots that he became the first American designer to be elected to the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.
Patrick was very unusual in many ways. He was certainly one of the first openly gay black fashion designers. Kelly's promising career was cut short by an early death on 1st January, 1990. He died in Paris, of bone marrow disease, a brain tumour and complications from AIDS.

On 28th March, 1990, the Fashion Institute of Technology, in New York held a memorial to Patrick Kelly. They filled the windows of their 7th Avenue showrooms with his creations. All his friends in the fashion industry, and the models who had worked with him, and the clientele who had worn his clothes, gathered together to remember him with great sadness. 
The first retrospective of the design work of Patrick Kelly is being held at the Brooklyn Museum of Art from April to September 2004. It is in celebration of the opening of the BMA's new front entrance pavilion and public plaza, a $ 63 million dollar project of the City of Brooklyn and supporters of the museum. -via Fashionmodeldirectory

January 1, 1990 Patrick Kelly, fashion designer, died.

Kelly was born September 24, 1954 in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He initially studied at the Parsons School of Design, but in 1979 moved to Paris, France. In 1985, he created Patrick Kelly Paris and began making outfits for Benetton and upscale Paris boutiques. In 1987, Kelly signed a $5 million contract to create a line of clothing for Warnaco which gave him international recognition.

In 1986, Time Magazine described his clothing as “fitted, funny and a little goofy” and in 1988 the Washington Post said “Patrick Kelly has a witty way with fashion.” Kelly was proud of his upbringing as an African American in Mississippi and it was reflected in his work. His clientele included Betty Davis, Grace Jones, and Jessye Norman. In 1988, Kelly became the first American voted in as a member of the Chambre Syndicale, an elite organization of designers based in Paris. In September, 2004, his work was the subject of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. - Via TodayinAfricanAmericanHistory