<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThere is very little clothing that hasn\u2019t been done before. It\u2019s the little extras that make them special,\u201d Perry Ellis told WWD in 1976. He proved this with cool, casual designs that refined American style, blending tradition with creative vision \u2014 and fun. Ellis\u2019 collections offered a framework for the next wave of American design and the global acceptance of American sportswear.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn this article, taken from the pages of WWD, on March 21, 1978, Ellis expanded on his vision for the Perry Ellis brand. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tNEW YORK<\/strong> \u2014 Perry Ellis\u2019 office in 1411 Broadway is in the state of frenzy that usually precedes the opening of a fall collection. Telephones ring, questions are shouted over partitions and assistants rush in and out of the room. A multicolored clutter of sketches, jars of paint, swatches of cloth and magazines cover the office\u2019s work desk.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Portfolio designer moves through the chaos like the eye of a hurricane, seemingly unruffled by his surroundings. He steps gracefully over a fallen bolt of cloth, picks up a half-eaten vanilla yogurt and calmly begins to spoon it into his mouth. He occasionally runs his fingers through his full, longish hair, but slowly, showing no signs of agitation. When he talks, he speaks softly and distinctly, and he is nearly always smiling.<\/p>\n \n\tFriends and business associates of Perry Ellis claim they have never seen him visibly upset, and Ellis himself says he cannot recall ever having screamed at anyone.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHe\u2019s a cool cat,\u201d says Frank Rockman, president of the Vera sportswear division, of which Portfolio is a part, and for which Ellis also designs. \u201cThe phrase was made for him; he absolutely never flies off the handle.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAnd Carol Horn, a fellow designer and personal friend of Ellis, says, \u201cHis personality is the same as his clothes \u2014 extremely refined, but at a taste level everyone is comfortable with.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThis combination of perennial calm and understated elegance has served Ellis well. In his third year of designing for Vera, and the second of his Portfolio collection, he is at the fore of America\u2019s young designers, reaping praise from both retailers and other designers.<\/p>\n \n\tSays Oscar de la Renta: \u201cHis clothes are wonderfully American in their look, the essence of what sportswear should look like, young and fresh.\u201d And Ralph Lauren says he considers Ellis \u201cone of the few upcoming designers who is trying to develop his own style instead of looking like other people. He\u2019s very, very good.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFrench fashion entrepreneur Didier Grumbach, who says he is toying with the idea of bringing \u201cunexploited\u201d American designers to Paris, says he saw a display of Ellis\u2019 clothes in a window at Bloomingdale\u2019s and made a point of visiting the Portfolio showroom.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHis clothes have a specific look,\u201d Grumbach says. \u201cIt\u2019s different from anything I\u2019ve seen here. And I think any design having a specific look has an international market.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThese aesthetic judgments are confirmed on a retail level. Rockman says though buyers were cautious when the Portfolio division opened for spring of 1977, recent enthusiasm has generated about 500 accounts for the line, most doing \u201cmarvelously.\u201d The company won\u2019t divulge Portfolio\u2019s volume, but trade sources estimate it at about $2 million.<\/p>\n \n\tKal Ruttenstein, vice president for fashion direction at Bloomingdale\u2019s, says when Ellis made a personal appearance at the New York store, the response was \u201coverwhelming for a designer who\u2019s not even that well known yet.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t Ellis\u2019 own response to his talents as a designer was initially more guarded. When Rockman asked him if he would be interested in designing for Vera, where he had been a design and merchandising director, Ellis said he wasn\u2019t interested. But he soon changed his mind.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI was involved with design in the way of selection of fabric, color and prints,\u201d Ellis says. \u201cThe only thing I wasn\u2019t doing was sketching. In designing, I found I could make my involvement complete in a way.<\/p>\n \n\tSlouched comfortably in a pair of khakis, a drop-shouldered cotton shirt of his own design and a pair of Top siders, he adds, \u201cI always liked the feel of nice cotton against my skin, and I always had a sense of style \u2014 not overdeveloped but understated. I\u2019m basically a shy person, and the last thing I want to do is call attention to myself.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe reflects this personal theory of dress in his Portfolio collections. \u201cI really feel I\u2019m trying to do everyday clothes that are friendly \u2014 like a new shirt that feels old and comfortable \u2014 and look like old friends hanging in your closets.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tEllis is much more animated when he discusses his clothes than when he talks about himself. His soft, measured speaking voice, which still retains the slow cadences and rounded vowels of a native Virginian, drops to a burlesque guttural tone when, he exclaims, \u201cOh, this jacket \u2014 I\u2019m so crazy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAs a designer, he says, he is necessarily a precisionist. \u201cI\u2019m so fussy about details \u2014 the feel of fabrics, a waistband, pocket length, movement. An eighth of an inch on a lapel can make an enormous difference.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tEllis admits he\u2019s not as fussy about his own attire. At an art opening at the Metropolitan Museum, he wore khakis, Top siders, a vest and \u201ca tie that belonged to my father.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI can\u2019t understand how men can let themselves be herded into a place like a lot of black and white Guernsey cows in their tuxedoes,\u201d he says. In spite of his avowed shyness, he admits that if everyone else dressed as he did, he would change his style.<\/p>\n \n\tAccordingly, Ellis says he shies away from looks other designers are doing. He adds he admires the creativity of Calvin Klein\u2019s \u201cspecial statement\u201d and clothes designed by Carol Horn, Alice Blaine and, particularly, Kenzo, who, he says, \u201cbreaks through great barriers and really plunges into new things.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn spite of his liking for Kenzo\u2019s designs, and a fondness for the films of Bunuel and the novels of Jerzy Kozinski, Ellis says the clothes he designs are \u201chardly surreal but grounded in an everyday sense of reality.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tStill, he thinks it\u2019s important to bring touches of humor to his collections, such as putting galoshes and rolled woolen socks over thick leggings on his models. \u201cSomething a little peculiar is wonderful to the eye, and it adds something human to clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIt is no surprise that when Ellis discusses women he considers well-dressed, he tends to cite people he knows personally, such as his design assistant and one of his models. And adds, \u201cClothes can never make a woman; they only support something inside her.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tVanessa Redgrave, he thinks, has \u201ca wonderful, independent attitude that she always carries with her. I\u2019d love to see her in my clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAnd he says he will always \u201cadmire and respect Jackie Onassis.\u201d He first saw her, he says, when he was stationed at the White House when he was in President Kennedy\u2019s Honor Guard during a six-month stint with the Coast Guard.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThose were the days of Camelot, and Jackie Kennedy was lifting hemlines, in her red dresses and pillbox hats. I used to look at that woman \u2014 you know how her eyes are far apart so you can\u2019t look at both at the same time \u2014 and it was magic. I\u2019ve always held that image.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tEllis says designing comes easily to him, and he works with fabric and color first, which ultimately determine the shape. Inspiration, he adds, comes randomly. \u201cYou can be anywhere, and you see somebody doing something that\u2019s a treat for the eye, and your head turns around.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe designs that have evolved from this process have placed Ellis squarely in the limelight, something which he, \u201cas a private person,\u201d admits makes him a little uncomfortable.<\/p>\n \n\tWatching Ellis pose for a photographer shows something of this discomfort as he begins to run his fingers through his hair more frequently.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cPrivacy is extremely important to me,\u201d he explains. \u201cI have to have the tranquility of couple of hours each morning just by myself.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tEllis finds this privacy at his home brownstone on the Upper West Side, which he owns. He describes the house as an extension of himself, like his clothes. It is decorated with comfortable elegance and a range of furnishing including a Chippendale bed and a Queen Anne chest of drawers, which \u201creflect a lot of movement in my life. It\u2019s a culmination of places, friends and families.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe says he most enjoys entertaining a few friends, tending his plants, exercising \u2014 he runs in Central Park and attends an exercise class \u2014 and occasionally dancing, though \u201cnever at Studio 54.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe also likes to travel \u2014 to Switzerland and the south of France, his parents\u2019 home in Virginia, and his house on Fire Island.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd he\u2019s developed a recent interest in soothsaying, a result of several visits to psychic Frank Andrews. He says he visited Andrews for the first time just before the debut of his Portfolio collection.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI went totally unannounced, and he didn\u2019t know who I was,\u201d Ellis says. \u201cBut he told me I was an artist, or possibly a designer, and predicted lots of success.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tEllis says he visited Andrews again recently and was told things \u201ctoo embarrassing to repeat,\u201d but which all boded well for his professional future.<\/p>\n \n\tThese predictions may or may not be confirmed. But in the meantime, one imagines Ellis will follow the code which his assistant, Patricia Pastor, describes.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOne of Perry\u2019s philosophies is that everything works out in the end, and whatever happens, happens.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPastor pauses and nods to herself. \u201cYou know, it usually does work out.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u2014 Ben Brantley<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThere is very little clothing that hasn\u2019t been done before. It\u2019s the little extras that make them special,\u201d Perry Ellis told WWD in 1976. He proved this with cool, casual designs that refined American style, blending tradition with creative vision \u2014 and fun. Ellis\u2019 collections offered a framework for the next wave of American design and the global acceptance of American sportswear. In this article, taken from the pages of WWD, on March 21, 1978, Ellis expanded on his vision for the Perry Ellis brand. NEW YORK \u2014 Perry Ellis\u2019 office in 1411 Broadway is in the state of frenzy that usually precedes the opening of a fall collection. Telephones ring, questions are shouted over partitions and assistants rush in and out of the room. A multicolored clutter of sketches, jars of paint, swatches of cloth and magazines cover the office\u2019s work desk. The Portfolio designer moves through the chaos like the eye of a hurricane, seemingly unruffled by his surroundings. He steps gracefully over a fallen bolt of cloth, picks up a half-eaten vanilla yogurt and calmly begins to spoon it into his mouth. He occasionally runs his fingers through his full, longish hair, but slowly, showing no signs of agitation. When he talks, he speaks softly and distinctly, and he is nearly always smiling. Friends and business associates of Perry Ellis claim they have never seen him visibly upset, and Ellis himself says he cannot recall ever having screamed at anyone. \u201cHe\u2019s a cool cat,\u201d says Frank Rockman, president of the Vera sportswear division, of which Portfolio is a part, and for which Ellis also designs. \u201cThe phrase was made for him; he absolutely never flies off the handle.\u201d And Carol Horn, a fellow designer and personal friend of Ellis, says, \u201cHis personality is the same as his clothes \u2014 extremely refined, but at a taste level everyone is comfortable with.\u201d This combination of perennial calm and understated elegance has served Ellis well. In his third year of designing for Vera, and the second of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}