Hi! Each Tuesday throughout the month we'll be focusing on someone in the arts (painting, sculpting, photography, comics, etc) or fashion industries who have made an impact. Yesterday I was ranting and going on and today we're back to normal. lol Today we're focusing on the Fashion half of this Spotlight and talking about someone a bit more modern than our typical Spotlight entrants. Looking back on the '90s, this designer's impact was carried through the entire decade with the feel and the energy that fashion seemed to have. His career was tragically cut short but the vision he had still lives on.
Name: Patrick Kelly, 1954-1990
Profession: Fashion designer
Why is the Spotlight on him today? For his contributions to the fashion industry and his unique ability to bring race to the forefront of his fashion
Notables:
--Was the first American designer to have his line sold in France's prestigious Victoire boutiques
--Notably integrated racially stereotypical elements into his fashion, such as watermelons, golliwogs and Aunt Jemima bandana-style dresses in an effort to reclaim those symbols from their racist history; there is even a golliwog face and heart on his headstone
--faced constant racism throughout the early days of his career, even having a scholarship rescinded after the Dean found out he was Black
--was able to dress Grace Jones, Pat Cleveland, Iman, Naomi Campbell and Cicely Tyson, to name a few
--was posthumously celebrated with an exhibition called Runway of Love at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
--had his line sold in luxury retailers Bergdorf's and Neiman Marcus
--had a six-page spread in French Elle following the release of his line
--was the first Black and the first American designer to be voted into France's official organization of fashion designers, Chambre Syndicale, which is the trade association for the ready-to-wear industry
--was posthumously honored and celebrated by Gerlan Marcel in an exhibition called Gerlan Jeans Loves Patrick Kelly
--signed a $5 million production contract with the apparel manufacturer Warnaco but died before being able to fulfill it
--became known for combining his playfulness with deeper racial symbolism and somehow making it ready to wear for all kinds of women
--was posthumously honored by artist Derrick Adams with the exhibition Derrick Adams: Patrick Kelly, The Journey, which is an exhibit based on Adams' interpretation of Kelly's life
--still has his work and various personal mementos from his career on display at Jackson State University and The Schomberg Center of the NYPL
--was able to present runway shows at The Louvre because of his membership in the Chambre Syndicale
--was posthumously honored by the Brooklyn Museum of Art with the exhibition Patrick Kelly: A Retrospective
Further reading links:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Quote of the Day:
"I design differently because I am Patrick Kelly, and Patrick Kelly is Black."
"I've got hope, I've got dreams, and I have aspirations. I don't need to climb mountains; I don't need to build nations. What I do need is the courage to look deep inside, cos I'm me and from me I know I can't hide. I don't wish to fly, I'm quite happy to glide. I am who I am and I'll be me with pride."
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