Perry Ellis

Born:-03/03/1940
Died:-05/30/1986

Handsome and gentlmanly, Perry Ellis, one of the top designers of the Seventies and Eighties, dressed informally in khakis, blue oxford shirts and Top-Siders. He wore his long hair in a pony tail.

Starting as a retailer, Ellis had gone onto become the designer for Portfolio. The "slouch look" of layered unstructured shapes was his trade- mark, along with bright hand-knit sweaters, cropped pants and jackets with dimpled sleeves and bold buttons. He later added remarkable fabric mixes and unusual proportions, in such looks as very abbreviated turtleneck sweaters worn with jodhpurs and Thirties-style hats, or sailor sweaters shown with long pleated skirts and berets.

In 1978, Ellis started his own company, Perry Ellis International, to handle licensing. It had become one of the biggest and most influential businesses on Seventh Avenue when he died in 1986 at the age of 46 from AIDS.

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