Perry Ellis (
March 3,
1940 –
May 30,
1986) was an American
fashion designer who founded a sportswear house in the mid-1970s.
The Rise of Perry Ellis
Perry Edwin Ellis was born in
Portsmouth, Virginia, on
March 3,
1940, as the only child of Edwin and Winifred Rountree Ellis. His father owned a
Coal & Oil company which enabled the family to live a comfortable middle-class life. Perry graduated from
Woodrow Wilson High School in
Portsmouth, Virginia in 1957. Perry then studied at the
College of William and Mary, in
Williamsburg, Virginia, and graduated with a degree in
business administration in 1961. He enlisted in the
United States Coast Guard reserve to avoid the
military draft and after six months he enrolled at
New York University, from which he graduated with a
master's degree in
retailing in 1963.
He then started out in
department store retailing in the
Richmond, Virginia area to gain experience in the
fashion industry as a
buyer and merchandiser at the department store
Miller & Rhoads. While there, he was co-founder of a Richmond retail shop
A Sunny Day. He later joined the sportswear company
John Meyer in
New York. In the mid-1970s, eventually, he was approached by his then employer, The Vera Companies, famous for their polyester double-knit pantsuits, to design a fashion collection for them. Soon after that, Ellis presented his first women's sportswear line, called Portfolio, in November 1976. Although he could not
sketch, he knew exactly how the industry worked and proved a master of innovative ideas who created 'new classics' that American women longed for at the time.
Praised by critics as the ideal American sportswear designer of the time and loved by female consumers for his clean-cut yet casual style, Ellis, together with The Vera Companies'
parent company, founded his own
fashion house, Perry Ellis International, in 1978. He opened his showroom on New York's fashionable
Seventh Avenue. As the company's
chairman and
head designer he later developed Perry Ellis Menswear Collection — widely successful, and marked by "non-traditional, modern classics". Step by step, he added
shoes,
accessories,
furs and
perfume that all bore his name. It became his trademark to skip down the
runway at the end of his fashion shows.
Throughout the 1980s the company continued to expand and include various
labels such as Perry Ellis Collection and Perry Ellis Portfolio. By 1982, the company had more than 75 staff. In 1984, Perry Ellis America was created in cooperation with
Levi Strauss. In 1985, he revived his lesser-priced Portfolio
line. In the early 1980s,
wholesale revenues had figured at about $60 million. By 1986 that number had risen to about $250 million.
Perry Ellis died in May 1986.
Private life
In November 1984, Barbara Gallagher, a
Hollywood screenwriter and long-time Ellis friend, gave birth to Ellis' daughter Tyler Alexandra Gallagher Ellis. Mother and daughter used to live in a house in
Brentwood, California, that Ellis had bought. These days, the two live in
Pacific Palisades and
New York.
Perry Ellis fell seriously ill during the mid-1980s. Initially, it was not said what he was
suffering from although he had been treated for
hepatitis in a previous year. At the
Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) annual awards ceremony in January 1986 he had to be accompanied to the
podium by an
aide to receive his
award. On
May 8 of that year, Ellis was not able to perform his traditional skip down the
runway anymore and, looking shockingly gaunt and frail, had to be supported by two of his
employees when he briefly appeared at the end of the
runway. It was to be his last fashion show and he received
standing ovations for it. Immediately after the show, he was admitted to
New York Hospital-
Cornell Medical Center where he fell into a coma and died two weeks later of
viral encephalitis, an
AIDS-related disease, on
May 30,
1986. A
memorial was held at the
New York Ethical Culture Society on
June 12. Perry Ellis was dead at 46 and one of the first prominent American figures to succumb to
AIDS.
Ellis'
long-time partner since 1980 Laughlin Barker, an
attorney, became
president and
legal counsel for Perry Ellis International in 1981. Barker's
health deteriorated seriously in the early 1980s and when he died on
January 2,
1986, aged 46, it was said in a whisper that he had suffered from
HIV and
AIDS although officially only
lung cancer was mentioned. "It's been a difficult time for me", said Ellis of Barker's death in 1986: "Laughlin was an extraordinary man, and I loved him. We worked together 24 hours a day, and he brought genius and humor to this business. We were together five years, and there was never an argument or a disagreement."
In 1987, the designer's restored
town house at 37 West 70th Street in
New York City was sold for $5.7 million - an incredibly high price at that time.
Awards
- Perry Ellis won eight Coty Awards between 1979 and 1984, the last year that they were given.
- He was presented with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Fashion Award in 1983.
- Perry Ellis also served as president of the CFDA.
- In 1986, the annual Perry Ellis Award—now known as the Swarovski Emerging Talent Award—was created to honor emerging talents in the world of men's and women's fashion designers. The first designer to receive it in 1986 was David Cameron, the more recently Zac Posen in 2004, Trovata in 2006, and Derek Lam in 2005.
- Also in 1986, during the CFDA awards at New York's Lincoln Center a Special Tribute was awarded to Perry Ellis who died that year.
Sources
Category:American fashion designersCategory:1940 birthsCategory:1986 deathsCategory:LGBT people from the United StatesCategory:LGBT fashion designersCategory:College of William and Mary alumniCategory:People from Portsmouth, VirginiaCategory:Woodrow Wilson High School (Virginia) alumniCategory:AIDS-related deaths in New Yorkes:Perry Ellisit:Perry Ellispl:Perry Ellis
