Found 4 collections related to African American fashion designers

African-American fashion designer who came to fame in the fashion houses of Paris, Patrick Kelly was voted into the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt à Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode, the prestigious French organization of fashion designers in 1988. He was the first American to be so honored. Although he produced collections only from 1985 until his death from AIDS in 1990 at the age of 35, his exuberant, witty garments proved to be potent and original contributions to the field of fashion. For more biographical information see the Patrick Kelly Archives record. The Patrick Kelly collection of audio-visual recordings documents a selection of the designer's fashion shows, including several of his runway shows from Paris (1986-1989), interviews with the designer on CNN Style (1989) and Runway Club (1989), and a recording of the memorial service held for Patrick Kelly at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. See the finding aid for specific classmarks. less

The Patrick Kelly Archive consists of press books, sketches of his designs, clippings, scrapbooks, and some letters. The bulk of the press books and sketches document Kelly's Paris fashion shows from 1985 to 1989. A number of the sketches are accompanied by fabric swatches and annotations for colors and types of fabric to be used. There are numerous clippings about his designs and fashion shows, magazine covers and feature articles advertising his fashions in major American and French fashion magazines. Included in the collection are a scrapbook and documents related to his death, a small amount of correspondence referring to this fashion career, as well as a proposal (1993-1994) prepared by Maya Angelou for a book about Kelly. Other scrapbooks document Kelly's birthday and Christmas parties, and post-fashion show parties. One of the scrapbooks contains photographs of the behind-the-scenes preparations for his March 1989 show and includes color sketches of his designs. There is also a small sampling of the black themed postcards Kelly was known to collect. less