Imagine it: you’re at the annual CFDA awards and your name is called. The year is 1986. You already have eight COTY awards under your belt and you’re a designer who once sent the Princeton cheerleaders down the catwalk and skipped down the runway after your own shows.While you should bound up to the podium and bellow, “I’m the queen of the world,” you wobble forth, unsteadily, balancing on the arm of an assistant. You sit atop a worldwide empire that (even today) rakes in more than $850 million annually, but you can barely walk. In less than six months, you’ll be dead.
On June 2, 1986, WWD ran an obit that began: “Perry Ellis, who built a multifaceted fashion empire with a young and spirited approach to casual sportswear, was one of America's most important designers. His death at the age of 46 marked the end of a design career that lasted just over 10 years, but that left an indelible stamp on this country's fashion industry.” To put it more simply, Perry Ellis was major.
But he didn’t start out that way. Ellis was born in a small Virginia town to middle-class parents. After a six-month stint in the Coast Guard, he landed in Manhattan in the early 60s, earning his master’s in retailing at New York University.
His own home life was a bit less straightforward. He has a daughter, Tyler Alexandra Gallagher Ellis, with Maude and Mary Tyler Moore writer Barbara Gallagher. He also cavorted with his lead menswear model, almost 20 years his junior. This was back in that heady, Judith Krantz-era in fashion when one could have a family and male model, and no one questioned it.
Things soon settled down for Ellis. In 1978, he launched his own fashion house, which women loved for the smart yet casual looks (we've pictured three classics: the peacoat, the causual khaki and the perfectly hideous Christmas sweater). Two years later he shacked up with attorney Laughlin Barker, who by 1981 was president of Perry Ellis International. Their Upper West Side townhouse fetched 5.7 million the year after they both died.
That same year, Ellis was given another, posthumous honor by the CFDA, who launched the Perry Ellis Award, going to Daryl K. for womenswear and Gene Meyer for mens. More recent winners include Zac Posen and Proenza Schouler.
And while he’s remembered annually by the CFDA with this endowment, it’s also important to remember Ellis on World AIDS Day, along with his many colleagues lost to the disease. Perry Ellis: a designer who could not draw, but knew how to represent.
