Patrick Kelly-1980s Fun

While working on the tutorial for the man’s shirt, my girls wanted me to take a small break to tell you about an exhibition they attended at the De Young Museum in San Francisco… “Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love” (now through April 24, 20220. This exhibition celebrates the career and legacy of Black fashion designer Patrick Kelly (1954–1990) who was also a dear friend of mine many years ago in Paris. I met Patrick six months after he arrived and I was blessed to watch him rise from struggling artist status to the rising catwalk star he became within five years. Together in our circle of friends, we laughed, we cried, we worked hard to scrape up money for the rent. We sipped champagne, we ate his fried chicken we were invited everywhere and yes we did party hardily….But we all worked as hard as we kicked up our heels. I have very vivid memories of this jovial, generous, incredibly creative person and am still amazed when I think of how he became a legend in the field of fashion design before my very eyes. 

First presented by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2014, this exhibition, now on America’s west coast, presents 79 fully accessorized ensembles, dating from 1984 to 1990. Many are from the Philadelphia Museum’s archive of Kelly’s work while others represent new acquisitions from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s costume collection. The exhibition’s sections and themes include the “Runway of Love,” highlighting the designer’s heart-shaped embellishments to his clothing, often composed from his signature buttons. 

”Fast Fashion” includes designs that Patrick Kelly assembled quickly to sell on the streets of Paris after he moved there in 1979. He dressed his model friends in body-conscious knits, which they would wear around the city, becoming living advertisements of his vision. These dresses quickly caught the attention of an editor at French Elle magazine, which featured Kelly’s fashions in a six-page spread in February 1985, as well as the Paris boutique Victoire. His first collection was purchased by New York City's prestigious store, Bergdorf Goodman, who found Kelly’s designs fun, chic, affordable, and Parisian. The section “Beyond Design'' explores Patrick Kelly’s originality and unique vision through the presentation of his humorous fashion sketches, provocative runway show invitations, and personal portraits styled in collaboration with the world’s greatest photographers. Among the most poignant and private artworks are those in collage, which include tributes to his parents and his muse, Black American entertainer and activist Josephine Baker.

“Mississippi in Paris” features Patrick Kelly’s work that boldly addressed the designer’s upbringing, including imagery drawn from his experiences with racism in the United States and his personal collection of racially charged memorabilia. These included bandana as well as golliwog dresses, the latter of which was adapted as his logo. (A golliwog is a fictional and racist Black character that first appeared in a British children’s book in 1885.) Kelly’s adaptation of this symbol would prove extremely controversial in the United States, as the golliwog has always been considered a symbol of racism. Yet for Kelly, there was power in owning these images and putting a positive spin on the to honor Black Americans.

“Hot Couture” is a playful tribute to Patrick Kelly’s muses and the iconic couturier Kelly revered. Many of his own presentations parodied the work of famed couturiers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Gabrielle Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, and Madame Grès, the designer whom Kelly held in highest regard. A master at draping and manipulating fabric into Greek goddess–like gowns, Madame Grès inspired Kelly’s much more practical knitted jersey dresses with wraps that tied around the body in various ways. 

In 1988, shortly after receiving financial backing from the fashion powerhouse Warnaco, Patrick Kelly became the first American and the first Black designer elected into the elite Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode. Membership in this exclusive group allowed Kelly to present his ready-to-wear collections in the tents at the Musée du Louvre. The section titled “Lisa Loves the Louvre” features designs from this Spring/Summer 1989 collection, for which Kelly fantasized that the museum’s most famous resident, Mona Lisa, invited him to show his latest designs. His collection was a spirited evocation of all his favorite Lisas, from Billie (Holiday) Lisa to the otherworldly Mona Lisa. 

The exhibition’s final section, “Two Loves,” is a tribute to Patrick Kelly’s loves, America and France, which were also embraced by his muse Josephine Baker. The designs in this section come from Kelly’s final Fall/Winter 1989–1990 collection and pay homage to cultural icons from both countries, including the Eiffel Tower and the cartoon character Jessica Rabbit. The rousing finale is an allusion to the Casino de Paris music hall, where Baker performed during the 1920s, and which Kelly transforms into the Casino de Patrick. 

Sadly, Patrick's career was cut short by his premature death on January 1, 1990 due to complications related to AIDS. Since his passing, Patrick Kelly’s aesthetic signatures have become part of the lexicon of fashion, and the designer himself has served as a symbol of hope and rallying cry for other designers of color. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s presentation of Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love marks the first time that Kelly’s work has been presented by a West Coast museum and allows further opportunity to unpack the social, cultural, and political contexts behind Patrick Kelly’s work.

We first reported on Patrick Kelly back in 2014 at the opening of his retrospective in Philadelphia. That post which you can find by clicking HERE, includes more photos of his work as well as a short tutorial on creating easy knit dresses. At that time, I also uploaded a tutorial on how to make his signature cocoon coat for your doll. 

If you are anywhere near the San Francisco Bay area, I highly recommend this exhibition. 

Background photos and video clip for this post: Courtesy of De Young Museum for Patrick Kelly Runway of Love Exhibition. October 23, 2021-April 24, 2022.

De Young museum: Golden Gate Park \ 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118 \ 415.750.3600 \ Hours: Tuesdays – Sundays, 9:30 am–5:15 pm

Like us on Facebook: @FashDollStylist

We're also on Pinterest: @FashDollStylist

And of course, we are on Instagram: @fashiondollstylist