Perry Edwin Ellis (March 3, 1940 – May 30, 1986) was an American fashion designer who founded his eponymous sportswear house in the mid-1970s. Ellis' influence on the fashion industry has been called "a huge turning point"[1] because he introduced new patterns and proportions to a market which was dominated by more traditional men's clothing.
Ellis 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.[6] While there, he was co-founder of Richmond retail shop A Sunny Day. He later joined the sportswear company John Meyer of Norwich in Manhattan.
In the mid-1970s, he was approached by his then employer, The Vera Companies, famous for their polyester double-knit pantsuits, to design a fashion collection for them. In November 1976, Ellis presented his first women's sportswear line, called Portfolio. Although he was not a skilled sketcher, 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.[7][8][9] He was initially known for his versions of the oversized, unconstructed, layered, natural-fiber, mid-1970s Big Look or Soft Look[10][11][12][13] that was the leading fashion trend of the time,[14][15][16][17] for which he was compared favorably to Kenzo, the 1973 originator of the look.[18] Ellis enhanced this trend by creating substantial, hand-knit-looking sweaters in rough-hewn textures that combined well with the earthtones and loose shapes of the period.[19][20] He would be known for his sweaters for the rest of his career.[21]
Together with The Vera Companies' parent company, Manhattan Industries, he founded his own fashion house, Perry Ellis International, in 1978, opening his showroom on New York's Seventh Avenue. That same year, he interpreted the new big shoulders of the fall[22][23][24] in a way that proved more popular with the US public[25] than the extreme forties-revival looks emanating from Europe,[26][27][28][29] adding large but soft shoulder pads to his familiar earthy textures[30] in new, slimmed down, but still casual shapes. He explicitly endorsed the trend for layering one set of shoulder pads on top of another,[31] which would become common in the 1980s, as would the flounced miniskirts, called rah-rah skirts in the UK, that he and Norma Kamali introduced the following year.[32][33] Also in 1979, he began introducing other means to widen the shoulder besides padding, mainly via adding fullness at the top of the sleeves with gathers and folds.[34][35] He played with silhouettes by showing knee-length and shorter circle skirts[36] and calf-length culottes (a word he disliked, preferring "cropped pants") with unusually-proportioned tops,[37] while still staying true to the fresh, natural look of earth-toned textiles that he had refined during the Soft Look period.[38] His cropped pants, cropped sweaters, and dimpled sleeves of the end of the seventies were very influential.[39][40]
As the company's chairman and head designer he later developed Perry Ellis Menswear Collection – marked by "non-traditional, modern classics."[citation needed] Step by step, he added shoes, accessories, furs and perfume that all bear his name. Throughout the 1980s, the Perry Ellis company continued to expand and include various labels, such as Perry Ellis Collection and Perry Ellis Portfolio.
During the first half of the 1980s, Perry Ellis was as prominent a US fashion name as Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren.[41] He continued to be known for the sweaters,[42] cropped trousers,[43][44] and silhouette experimentation[45][46] that he had begun at the end of the seventies, including the flippy miniskirts that he and Norma Kamali introduced in 1979. He was also known for the very high quality of his fabrics, most of which he imported from Europe.[47][48]
In 1980, Ellis explored handmade knitwear,[49] enlarged patterns, and enlarged Argyle and launched his first male collection. As an additional alternative to the prominent shoulder-padding he had become known for in 1978, he used capelet collars to add width[50] and continued to incorporate top-of-sleeve tucks and pleats.[51] For spring of 1981, he presented soft corsets[52][53] and hip-padded versions of the short skirts he had begun showing in 1979,[54][55] and he began using a few more substantial fabrics for shaping.[56] This former leader of the mid-seventies Big Look joined Fall 1981's brief return to that style with relish, showing longer lengths, loose layers, and harem pants with Cossack-inspired hats and capes,[57][58][59] though the look this time was more structured, via cummerbunds, extended shoulders, and tulle petticoats.[60]
In 1982, Perry Ellis won the Council of Fashion Designers of America's Designer of the year award, at a time when his company had more than 75 staff. He released his "Chariots of Fire" collection for spring of that year,[61][62] continuing to show the longer lengths he had favored the previous fall, though never exclusively.[63][64] For his fall 1982 collection, he tried his hand at some of the highly tailored suit styles that had dominated fashion since 1978,[65][66] to a cooler-than-usual critical reception.[67][68][69] In 1983, he showed high-waisted fit-and-flare skirts and slim trousers with short jackets.[70]
He reduced the rise of the previous year's high waistband somewhat for Spring of 1984, when he presented a collection intended to suggest an idyllic Australia, replete with his well-loved cropped trousers, cropped jackets, and focus on long skirts.[71] In 1984, Perry Ellis America was created in cooperation with Levi Strauss and he revived his lesser-priced Portfolio product line, filling it with the kind of soft, unlined, comfortable clothes he had shown in the mid-seventies, now updated with broader shoulders.[72] His Fall 1984 collection for both men and women was an homage to artist Sonia Delaunay and focused on Ellis's trademark sweaters in Delaunay colors.[73][74] Prints and slimmer, more minimal shapes were a focus for his Spring 1985 collection, with large florals, revealing cuts, and tunic sweaters prominent.[75][76] These closer-to-the-body cuts would continue through the end of the year,[77] enlivened by prints and colors inspired by Chinese porcelains.[78]
In the early 1980s, wholesale revenues had figured at about $60 million. By 1986 that number had risen to about $260 million.[79]
Highly praised professionally and personally,[80] Ellis believed that "fashion dies when you take it too seriously."[6] Of Perry Ellis's fashion design, Michael Bastian remarked that "no one did it better...He was able to be modern and yet not come off antiseptic." New York Times fashion columnist Bernadine Morris praised Ellis's tweeds and sweaters as "comfortable and forever-looking," with the "insouciant feeling of a college woman slipping into her boyfriend's jacket that is a size or so too big for her, or putting together a jacket and a pair of pants in patterns that don't quite match, but look quite appealing,"[81] while Steven Kolb, CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, described Ellis' fashion as "my way to step forward in fashion, but to still have a comfort level. It helped define my personality."
In 1981, Ellis began a relationship with attorney Laughlin Barker.[82] Later that year, Ellis appointed Barker the President of the licensing division of Perry Ellis International. They remained together until Barker's death in January 1986.[83]
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.[84]
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. By that time, Ellis had lost a considerable amount of weight and looked much older. Around the same time, Ellis' partner Laughlin Barker was undergoing chemotherapy for Kaposi's sarcoma, an AIDS-related cancer that later metastasized to his lungs. Ellis continued to deny that he was sick, but rumors of his illness persisted after he passed out in the receiving line at a party at the Costume Institute in December 1985.[85] On January 2, 1986, Barker died of lung cancer at the couple's home in Manhattan.[83] After Barker's death, Ellis' health rapidly declined. 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 slipped into a coma.[86] He died of viral encephalitis on May 30, 1986.[5] A spokesperson for Ellis' company would not comment on whether the designer's death was AIDS-related stating, "Those were Perry's wishes."[87]
Most newspapers omitted the AIDS rumors from 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."[88] A 1993 article from the Associated Press included Ellis among its list of better known AIDS victims.[89]
Legacy
Steven Kolb defined Perry Ellis legacy with the following words: "In terms of men's fashion, he was the first to bring the idea of dressing up in a casual way to the American man". 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 was David Cameron.[citation needed][90]
Though he worked as a designer for less than a decade, over 25 years after his death his work is "still seen as incredibly influential."[1]
In 1999, Miami-based textile company Supreme International purchased the Perry Ellis brand from Salant, a licensee of Perry Ellis that acquired it from Manhattan Industries in 1986. Supreme renamed itself Perry Ellis International and the company became traded on the NASDAQ under PERY. Perry Ellis International also owns and licenses other notable fashion brands, such as Original Penguin by Munsingwear, Cubavera, C&C California, Rafaella, Laundry by Shelli Segal, Ben Hogan, Jantzen, Nike Swim and Callaway, among others.
In the twenty-first century, the Perry Ellis brand has continued to expand. Building upon styles set forth by Ellis, the brand has successfully continued to expand, collaborate with other designers, such as Duckie Brown, and hold critical acclaim.[citation needed]
Awards
During the CFDA awards at New York City's Lincoln Center in 1986, Ellis was posthumously awarded a Special Tribute.
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.
In 2002, Ellis was honored with a commemorative white bronze plaque embedded into the sidewalk on Seventh Avenue in New York in the so-called Fashion Walk of Fame located on the part of Seventh Avenue called "Fashion Avenue."
^ ab"Perry Ellis". Biography.com. Archived from the original on February 22, 2019. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1968-1975". Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 298. ISBN0-670-80172-0. ...[W]orking or older women reacted against fads by demanding classics and many designers focused on this market....[I]t was these understated classics that became the mainstay of the fashion industry.
^Morris, Bernadine (November 10, 1977). "Spring Fashions: A Little Something for Everybody". The New York Times: 65. Retrieved December 31, 2021. In just one year, Perry Ellis has won a considerable reputation as a designer of casual clothes for the woman who, 10 years ago, might have lived in a commune. Today, she's grown up, but she prefers natural fibers, natural colors and clothes that look meant to be lived in.
^Morris, Bernadine (June 14, 1977). "New Designers Add Perspective to Fall Fashions". The New York Times: 48. Retrieved December 31, 2021. Everybody he knows is casual about lifestyles, he says, very open and honest. 'I hope my clothes reflect the ease of life today...'
^Donovan, Carrie (November 12, 1978). "Why the Big Change Now". The New York Times: SM226. Retrieved November 15, 2021. Perry Ellis...turned out some of the most extreme of the layered, piled-on 'big' looks...
^Morris, Bernadine (June 14, 1977). "New Designers Add Perspective to Fall Fashions". The New York Times: 48. Retrieved December 31, 2021. His clothes have a totally relaxed look, exemplified by the tapered pants which he cuts too long so they bunch up over the ankles....Over [a] T‐shirt, he will place a cotton shirt, a hooded khaki sweater, and a quilted cotton coat...He likes sleeves rolled up and feels that two pairs of socks, one baggy, give the proper contrast to the flouncy [underskirts].
^Morris, Bernadine (November 10, 1977). "Spring Fashions: A Little Something for Everyone". The New York Times: 65. Retrieved December 31, 2021. ...[H]e uses linen, hopsacking and even hemp for his loose jackets, full skirts and big shirts in his collection for Portfolio. There's usually an underskirt in a blending natural tone, worn with the full skirt.
^"The Big Bag Dress". The New York Times: 37. July 31, 1977. Retrieved May 17, 2023. The big dress bloused up into a blouson bubble top. With a shawl thrown over one shoulder, it's an excellent example of the new big look. To layer it further, put a long‐sleeved cotton T‐shirt underneath...From Portfolio by Perry Ellis.
^Salmans, Sandra (August 25, 1974). "Seventh Avenue". The New York Times: 96. Retrieved December 10, 2021. ...[T]he Big Look...was pioneered in Paris a year ago by Kenzo Takada...with absurdly large skirts and coats....[T]he look features long skirts, dropped shoulders, dolman sleeves and large armholes, blouson jackets, blowing capes, and loose dresses–all laid on with layers of fabric.
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1974". Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 337. ISBN0-670-80172-0. Kenzo anticipated a major change this winter by creating a full, circular skirt, easily caught by the wind...The replacement of the short, kicky skirt by the longer, fuller style was the most important change in the silhouette...The new coat and cape shapes were also looser, fuller and longer – the hemline was anywhere from 3 inches below the knee to the ankle. This voluminous, unconstructed style was christened the 'Big Look'.
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1976-1986". Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 342. ISBN0-670-80172-0. ...[B]y 1976 the Big Look – large, layered, peasant-inspired dressing – dominated Vogue...
^Larkin, Kathy (1979). "Fashion". 1979 Collier's Yearbook Covering the Year 1978. Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. pp. 249–251. [1978] began with women submerged under layers of soft shapeless clothing (unlined, unconstructed jackets, loose shirts and vests, and skirts spreading wide...)....The well-dressed woman started the year wearing soft, billowy, layered styles...
^Duka, John (July 2, 1978). "Fashion Profile". The New York Times: SM6. Retrieved December 31, 2021. 'To me, Perry Ellis is Kenzo,' says one former Coty Award winner who preferred to be anonymous. 'The only difference is that Kenzo's clothes were too big and didn't fit well. Perry simply took Kenzo's ideas and made them work.' (Kenzo is, in fact, the only designer that Ellis says he admires.)
^Duka, John (July 2, 1978). "Fashion Profile". The New York Times: SM6. Retrieved December 31, 2021. Last year [1977]..., Ellis was one of the major interpreters of the 'Slouch Look,' his own name for such designs as loose‐fitting, voluminous tops with raglan sleeves draped offhandedly over tapered pants cut too long so that they bunched at the ankles. He followed this with gutsy, oversized, bulky knit sweaters that hung down to mid‐thigh.
^Duka, John (January 3, 1982). "Designing an Empire". The New York Times: 20. Retrieved December 31, 2021. 'I had seen that what was lacking in the women's market were hand-knit sweaters that actually looked hand-knit – bulky, flawed, raw.' So, with the help of only one assistant, he produced his first collection. Ellis's sweaters were short and sexy and, paired with crumpled-looking pants, received rave reviews from the press, which enthusiastically dubbed it The Slouch Look.
^Duka, John (July 2, 1978). "Fashion Profile". The New York Times: SM6. Koko Hashim, vice president of Neiman‐Marcus [says]...'There has been an enormous change in the silhouette, a broadening of the shoulders and narrowing of the hips — what we call the triangle... — that requires a reeducation of the consumer'.
^Larkin, Kathy. "Fashion". 1979 Collier's Yearbook Covering the Year 1978. Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. p. 252. ...Perry Ellis...opened his show with...an actual Princeton football player, weighed down by shoulder pads, burst[ing] through a papier-mâché hoop onto the runway. Even before Ellis's models came out sporting padded coats and jackets, the fashion message was clear: Broad shoulders were in.
^Donovan, Carrie (November 12, 1978). "Why the Big Change Now". The New York Times: SM226. Retrieved November 15, 2021. Perry Ellis...this fall has produced the most extreme of the padded shoulders in America.
^Donovan, Carrie (November 6, 1978). "The New Look: Hit or Miss?". The New York Times: 58. Retrieved November 15, 2021. [A]nything and everything of Perry Ellis' breezy designs with exaggerated almost pillow‐padded shoulders has been a run‐away best seller in stores all over the country, with usually cautious store executives using words like 'fabulous' and 'unbelievable' to describe their success.
^Larkin, Kathy. "Fashion". 1979 Collier's Yearbook Covering the Year 1978. Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. pp. 249–252. ...1978...ended with...a revamped fashion silhouette reminiscent of the 1940's, a look characterized by broad, even padded shoulders, tight waistlines, and shorter, straighter skirts.
^Finley, Ruth, ed. (May 1, 1978). "Europe Fall '78...The Winds of Change!". Fashion International. New York, NY, USA: FI Publications, Inc. VI (8): 1. Paris...reflected gross exaggeration in silhouette and detailing; caution, therefore, is a vital word...
^Hyde, Nina S. (April 11, 1979). "Not-So-Ready-to-Wear Clothes". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 7, 2022. ...[M]any [buyers] had trouble selling exaggerated shoulders...'I can't see women getting into cars with shoulders so broad,' said Wendall Ward, vice president of Garfinckel's...At one point during the five-day marathon of fall ready-to-wear shows, Robert Sakowitz, president of Sakowitz (Houston), asked Val Cook of Saks-Jandel, 'Do you know a good book store in Paris?...I want to buy a stack of Bibles,' he explained. 'I think we will all need to do a lot of praying to sell these clothes'.
^Donovan, Carrie (May 6, 1979). "Fashion View: American Designers Come of Age". The New York Times: 254. Retrieved April 4, 2022. ...[F]ashion buyers and the press returned home saying such things as 'Paris isn't real,' 'It's too costumey'...[M]any Paris designers are not in tune with the times, and have therefore abdicated their fashion leadership...
^Duka, John (July 2, 1978). "Fashion Profile". The New York Times: SM6. Retrieved December 31, 2021. Now [fall 1978], there is his version of the triangle that incorporates a large range of natural tweeds, plush corduroys and hardy knits in rich, but neutral colors...
^Morris, Bernadine (April 25, 1978). "Ellis Joins Blass in Fashion's Firmament". The New York Times: 42. Retrieved December 10, 2021. Mr. Ellis said he had no compunctions about adding padded coat to padded jacket to padded sweater.
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1979". Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 367. ISBN0-670-80172-0. Norma Kamali...and Perry Ellis introduced the short rah-rah skirt, worn with short-sleeved jumpers, knee-high socks and pedal pushers.
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1980". Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 371. ISBN0-670-80172-0. Kenzo, Chloé and others now showed pretty, floral printed-cotton versions of the rah-rah introduced by Kamali and Ellis in 1979.
^Schiro, Anne-Marie (March 11, 1979). "Spring's Slim and Colorful Silhouette". The New York Times: ADZ1. Retrieved January 24, 2024. Perry Ellis...has toned down those football shoulders he was doing so that his summer clothes have gathers where the sleeves are set in to create width without bulk.
^Morris, Bernadine (May 1, 1979). "Perry Ellis: Back to College". The New York Times: C22. Retrieved January 24, 2024. Instead of last year's mammoth shoulder pads, there are folds at the top of sleeves that broaden the shoulders...It permits wearers to move in an un‐self‐conscious way.
^Morris, Bernadine (May 1, 1979). "Perry Ellis: Back to College". The New York Times: C22. Retrieved January 24, 2024. ...[T]he skirts are...full circles...[T]hey stop in the vicinity of the knees....[A]nother batch of skirts...bar[es] five inches or even more leg above the knee.
^Morris, Bernadine (May 1, 1979). "Perry Ellis: Back to College". The New York Times: C22. Retrieved January 24, 2024. ...Perry Ellis...has made a name for himself with baggy pants, mini sweaters and puffy down jackets.
^Morris, Bernadine (May 1, 1979). "Perry Ellis: Back to College". The New York Times: C22. Retrieved January 24, 2024. ...[T]he colors are mainly earthy hues.
^Duka, John (January 3, 1982). "Designing an Empire". The New York Times: 20. Retrieved December 31, 2021. His dimple-sleeve jackets, baby cable-knit sweaters and cropped pants, which looked so strange three years ago, have been copied by many of the smart manufacturers...
^Morris, Bernadine (April 21, 1982). "Ellis for Fall: Good and Not So Good". The New York Times: C14. Retrieved January 4, 2022. A whole industry of Perry Ellis adaptations has developed. Let him pinch a pleat at the top of a sweater sleeve and such pleats turn up everywhere. Let him cut a culotte with a certain fullness and Seventh Avenue is suddenly full of variations.
^Donovan, Carrie (May 6, 1979). "American Designers Come of Age". The New York Times: 254. Retrieved April 4, 2022. It is [Calvin] Klein, and other designers like Perry Ellis...and Ralph Lauren, who...have put the United States on an equal footing with the rest of the fashion world.
^Hyde, Nina S. (April 29, 1980). "Fashion's Opulent Autumn". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2022. Ellis's...bright-colored sweaters (his biggest sellers)...Ellis's special talent is sweaters...
^Hyde, Nina S. (April 29, 1980). "Fashion's Opulent Autumn". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2022. Ellis has...had great success with his midcalf-length full pants that bridge skirts and pants.
^Hyde, Nina S. (April 29, 1980). "Fashion's Opulent Autumn". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2022. ...Ellis is busy fiddling with the shape of clothes...
^Sweetinburgh, Thelma. "Fashion and Dress". 1981 Britannica Book of the Year: Events of 1980. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. p. 377. ISBN0-85229-381-X. Trend-setter Perry Ellis fashioned pastel linen into a new suit silhouette for spring – exaggerated shoulders on a short-sleeved, cropped jacket over a strapless handknit sweater. The soft, full trousers are hemmed at midcalf.
^Hyde, Nina (October 30, 1980). "Spring Blooms on Seventh Avenue". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2022. Most of Ellis's fabrics are from Europe, where they are dyed in the yarn and then woven rather than printed in massive quantities here. The difference is the richness of color and quality of fabric, said Ellis, who may be the biggest user of European fabric in America.
^Hyde, Nina (April 22, 1981). "Fancy Pants". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2022. Ellis is on a fabric binge that has taken him to Ireland for Donegal tweeds, England for his heathery plaids and France and Italy for his paisleys and duck-print challis...
^Hyde, Nina S. (April 29, 1980). "Fashion's Opulent Autumn". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2022. 'I wanted to take the padding out of the shoulder, but I felt it needed something at the top to replace it,' [Perry Ellis] explained. '[Capelet collars] were the answer'.
^Hyde, Nina (October 30, 1980). "Spring Blooms on Seventh Avenue". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2022. He has stashed away his old signature – padded shoulders...[H]e now has...width coming only from the rounded shape of the sleeve...
^Duka, John (October 20, 1981). "Notes on Fashion". The New York Times: C7. Retrieved June 22, 2022. ...as playful as Perry Ellis's soft corset of last spring...
^Hyde, Nina S. (November 7, 1980). "Round the Edges of American Fashion". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2022. Perry Ellis...showed...skirts that are padded below the waist at the hip....Ellis calls them 'farthingales'...Ellis...has shaped his linen farthingales with a wad of organdy....[Y]ou can wear them with padding and when you want to change, just take out the padding.
^Duka, John (November 26, 1980). "The Spring Collections: Looking Backward". New York: 73. Retrieved June 22, 2022. Perry Ellis's...short, hip-yoked, padded skirt, or farthingale...
^Hyde, Nina (October 30, 1980). "Spring Blooms on Seventh Avenue". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2022. Shape comes as well from the new stiffer fabrics, like faille and cotton twill.
^Hyde, Nina (April 22, 1981). "Fancy Pants". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2022. Ellis's clothes...are in sync with those of many of the Europeans, who have tilted to fuller, looser, layered looks for fall, along with many more pants shapes....First came the ankle-length Zouaves,...worn under two layers of fitted, belted coats with full skirts, Russian peasant hats with tassels and ankle-high boots.
^Morris, Bernadine (April 22, 1981). "All Eyes Turn to Perry Ellis". The New York Times: C14. Retrieved June 22, 2022. While ease is a basic component of the Ellis world of fashion, it is carried almost to its limits this season, what with those ballooning pants, the oversize Irish tweed blazers and the fullest, longest skirts the season is likely to produce. If that were not enough, he shows those voluminous skirts, sometimes two at a time, over the ballooning pants. The pants, as well as some of the skirts, just skim the tops of the high laced shoes...
^Duka, John (July 14, 1981). "Fancy Full". The New York Times: A22. Retrieved June 22, 2022. The new fashion message from Perry Ellis is big and full. For his resort collection, he has designed the fullest pants anyone has seen in some time. A fuller silhouette can also be found in his new skirts.
^Duka, John (July 14, 1981). "Fancy Full". The New York Times: A22. Retrieved June 22, 2022. For the complete Ellis look, the skirts are to be worn with tulle crinolines,...a cummerbund...
^Duka, John (November 3, 1981). "Notes on Fashion". The New York Times: B14. Retrieved August 4, 2023. ...Ellis...draws...inspiration from turn-of-the-century proportions, similar...to the clothes found in Chariots of Fire, which Mr. Ellis says he has not yet seen.
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1982". Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 379. ISBN0-670-80172-0. Perry Ellis showed an interpretation of twenties sportswear: pleated, straight linen skirts, loose linen jackets and jumpers with puffed sleeves, all in white, cream or pastel colours.
^Hyde, Nina (October 30, 1981). "Hemming and Hawing". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 22, 2022. ...[A] few designers, including Perry Ellis, continue an emphasis on longer lengths. Ellis, whose longer lengths have sold well this fall, is not about to give them up, though he did show plenty of short skirts.
^Morris, Bernadine (October 28, 1981). "Perry Ellis, Upstaging with Simplicity". The New York Times: C16. Retrieved April 4, 2022. ...[M]ost of the skirts were long, stopping below the calf....They are not only long but loose....Short skirts appear, also in white, and look crisp and starchy. They're full and flouncy and worn under matching tunics of eyelet-embroidered linen....The long, pleated skirts have the look of styles worn in the early part of this century for what passed for active sports...
^Duka, John (April 27, 1982). "Notes on Fashion". The New York Times: B6. Retrieved April 4, 2022. Some said it was clearly a case of international knock-off, with...Perry Ellis adapting Thierry Mugler...[M]any of the clothes echo the Retro looks of 1978.
^Hyde, Nina (April 22, 1982). "High Heels &". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2022. Perry Ellis...thinks some of his customers are ready to gussie up a bit, too. For them he has done nipped waistline peplum suits, with knee-length skinny skirts, and high-heeled pumps, a look with origins in the 1950s. He calls these his 'glamor suits'...
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1982". Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 380. ISBN0-670-80172-0. ...[Perry Ellis] decided to follow the Parisian road to high chic...Many were disappointed by this volte-face...
^Duka, John (October 26, 1982). "Notes on Fashion". The New York Times: D22. Retrieved June 22, 2022. Perry Ellis's fitted jackets for fall...emphasized the waist and...caused a storm of outrage...
^Morris, Bernadine (April 21, 1982). "Ellis for Fall: Good and Not So Good". The New York Times: C14. Retrieved January 4, 2022. ...[I]t is to be hoped that some of his experiments this season will not pass into the common domain. His peplum suits with tight waists and tighter skirts are one example. Even lovely fabrics can't redeem them. His short, tight jackets with vestigial tails, derived from men's formal clothes, are another. The little triangles of fabric descending from the waist in back are simply silly.
^Morris, Bernadine (April 29, 1983). "Perry Ellis: Applause for a New Silhouette". The New York Times: A18. Retrieved June 22, 2022. ...[B]rief flyaway jackets [were] shown with high-rise skirts almost long enough to touch the shoe tops....The skirts were fitted snugly through the waist and hips with tucks released to create a swirl of fullness toward the hem. The jacket hems created a balancing ripple above the waist.
^Morris, Bernadine (November 11, 1983). "Ellis, Lauren: The Triumph of Sportswear". The New York Times: B10. Retrieved June 22, 2022. ...[I]t was not necessary to worry about whether the linen suits with the long, slender skirts and the flyaway short jackets actually represented what was worn on Whitsunday in Sydney, Australia, as the program said. The flyaway jackets have been shown before. Mr. Ellis has perfected the cut, reduced the size of the waistbands of the skirts, pants or culottes with which they are worn and made them eminently wearable.
^Morris, Bernadine (March 9, 1984). "An Ellis Collection Takes Past as Prologue". The New York Times: B6. Retrieved June 22, 2022. This week [Perry Ellis Portfolio] was revived...with prices 30 to 50 percent lower than the major collection...Economies are achieved by using machine-made instead of hand-knitted sweaters, eliminating linings (Mr. Ellis says he personally prefers unlined clothes) and using wool instead of cashmere....The clothes have the relaxed, natural look of Mr. Ellis's first collection in the 1970's. Trousers are important. Colors are muted. Skirts are long and legs are clad in dark, thick stockings above low-heel shoes. Tops tend to be belted at the hips, and shoulders are broad.
^Morris, Bernadine (May 4, 1984). "The Mannish Look Takes Over". The New York Times: B8. Retrieved January 4, 2022. Perry Ellis dedicated a large portion of his collection to Sonia Delaunay...
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1984". Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 390. ISBN0-670-80172-0. Perry Ellis's jumpers were knitted with Delaunay patterns.
^Hyde, Nina (November 10, 1984). "Season of the Shirt". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 22, 2022. ...Ellis uses one huge bloom, often a carnation or a rose, carefully spaced on silk. His patterned sweaters, inspired by playing cards, are of a tunic shape, while other sweaters are the leanest and longest in town...
^Morris, Bernadine (January 22, 1985). "For Summer, by Perry Ellis". The New York Times: C12. Retrieved June 22, 2022. His new collection of clothes for hot weather is spare, stripped of all gewgaws and extraneous decoration....In knitted fabrics that cling to the body, some are as revealing as swimsuits....[H]e has made jackets that fasten on the chest and then open through the middle, shorts to be worn with matching bras or shirts and dresses that bare the knees...Minis are one of his enthusiasms...
^Gross, Michael (November 12, 1985). "Notes on Fashion". The New York Times: A32. Retrieved June 22, 2022. Perry Ellis gave the fashion crowd a jolt with an uncharacteristically close-fitting men's and women's collection shown with sizzle by such models as athletic Jeff Aquilon, lithe Lise Ryall, Elle Macpherson, who is so fit she seemed to leap out of everything she wore...
^Morris, Bernadine (November 6, 1985). "Perry Ellis Returns to Sportswear Look". The New York Times: C10. Retrieved June 22, 2022. ...[H]e now does sleeker clothes that occasionally bare a midiff....There are pleasant prints adapted, Mr. Ellis says, from his collection of Chinese export porcelains.
^Morris, Bernadine (April 21, 1982). "Ellis for Fall: Good and Not So Good". The New York Times: C14. Retrieved January 4, 2022. Among the 500 or so who clambered up the bleacher seats that lined [Ellis's] showroom on Seventh Avenue were Lauren Hutton and Cheryl Tiegs, the actress Anne Baxter and Sonia Rykiel, the French designer, who found his clothes 'so young and so original.' Mr. Ellis has achieved such stature that the presidents of Bloomingdale's, Bonwit Teller, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and Henri Bendel feel it is necessary to make the trek to Seventh Avenue to see and be seen as well as to check out the trends.
