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Perry Ellis

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This article is about the fashion designer. For the clothing brand that bears his name, see Perry Ellis (brand). For the larger company that owns many brands, see Perry Ellis International.

Perry Ellis
Born(1940-03-03)March 3, 1940
Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S.
DiedMay 30, 1986(1986-05-30) (aged 46)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Cause of deathViral encephalitis
Resting placeEvergreen Memorial Park[1]
NationalityAmerican
EducationCollege of William and Mary
New York University
OccupationFashion designer
LabelPerry Ellis
Children1
Awards1979–1984 Coty Awards (eight)
1983 Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Fashion Award
2002 commemorative white bronze plaque

Perry Edwin Ellis (March 3, 1940 – May 30, 1986) was an American fashion designer who founded a sportswear house in the mid-1970s.

Early life

Ellis was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, on March 3, 1940, the only child of Edwin and Winifred Rountree Ellis. His father owned a coal and 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.[citation needed]

Career

Ellis 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 of Norwich 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.

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 Seventh Avenue. As the company's chairman and head designer he later developed Perry Ellis Menswear Collection – 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.[citation needed]

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 $260 million.[2]

Personal life

In 1981, Ellis began a relationship with attorney Laughlin Barker.[3] Later that year, Ellis appointed Barker the President of licensing division of Perry Ellis International. They remained together until Barker's death in January 1986.[4]

In February 1984, Ellis and his long-time friend television producer and writer Barbara Gallagher conceived a child together via artificial insemination. Their daughter, Tyler Alexandra Gallagher Ellis, was born in November 1984. Ellis bought a home for Gallagher and their daughter in Brentwood, Los Angeles, and would visit frequently. In 2011, Tyler released her first line of handbags using the name Tyler Alexandra.[5]

Illness and death

In October 1985, rumors that Ellis had contracted AIDS began to surface when he appeared on the runway at the end of his Fall fashion show. Ellis had lost a considerable amount of weight and looked much older. Around this time, Ellis' partner Laughlin Barker was undergoing chemotherapy for Kaposi's sarcoma, an AIDS-related cancer which later metastasized to his lungs. Ellis continued to deny that he was sick, but the rumors of his illness persisted after he passed out in the receiving line at a party at the Costume Institute in December 1985.[6] On January 2, 1986, Barker died of lung cancer at the couple's home in Manhattan.[7]

Ellis' health rapidly declined after Barker's death. By May 1986, Ellis had contracted viral encephalitis which caused paralysis on one side of his face. Despite his appearance, he insisted on appearing at his Fall fashion show held in New York City on May 8. At the end of the show, Ellis attempted to walk the runway for his final bow but was so weak, he had to be supported by two assistants. It was his final public appearance. Ellis was hospitalized soon after and he slipped into a coma.[8] He died of viral encephalitis on May 30, 1986.[9] A spokesperson for Ellis' company would not comment on whether the designer's death was AIDS-related stating, "Those were Perry's wishes."[10]

Most newspapers omitted the AIDS rumors in Ellis' obituary and simply attributed his death to encephalitis. In August 1986, New York magazine writer Patricia Morrisroe wrote a story about Ellis' where she concluded that, "...many people believe Ellis had AIDS, and given the evidence, it seems likely."[11]

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 1981.
  • Perry Ellis also served as president of the CFDA from 1984 to 1986.
  • 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.
  • In 2002, Ellis was honored with a commemorative white bronze plaque embedded into the sidewalk on New York's Seventh "Fashion" Avenue (east side sidewalk between 41st Street to 35th Street), the so-called Fashion Walk of Fame.

References

  1. ^ Perry Ellis at Find a Grave
  2. ^ Morrisroe, Patricia (August 11, 1986). "The Death and Life Of Perry Ellis". New York Magazine. 19 (31). New York Media, LLC: 28. ISSN 0028-7369.
  3. ^ Morrisroe 1986 p.32
  4. ^ Morrisroe 1986 p.36
  5. ^ Louie, Elaine (April 29, 2011). "Finding the Design in Her DNA". nytimes.com. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
  6. ^ Morrisroe 1986 pp.34-35
  7. ^ Morrisroe 1986 p.36
  8. ^ Morrisroe 1986 pp.36, 39
  9. ^ Morris, Bernadine (May 31, 1986). "Perry Ellis, Fashion Designer, Dead – Obituary". The New York Times. Retrieved June 26, 2012.
  10. ^ Singleton, Don (July 3, 1987). "Dilemma In Aids Deaths: To Tell Or Not". philly.com. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  11. ^ Shaw, David (September 3, 1986). "Journalistic Ethics : AIDS Rumors--Do They Belong in News Stories?". latimes.com. p. 1. Retrieved March 13, 2013.

Sources

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