Perry Edwin Ellis (3 March 1940–30 May 1986), fashion designer, was born in Portsmouth and was the son of Winifred Alene Roundtree Ellis and Edwin L. Ellis, a draftsman who worked in Norfolk's naval dockyards and who also owned a successful fuel oil business. After graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1957, he enrolled in the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary (later Old Dominion University). About eighteen months later Ellis transferred to William and Mary, where he graduated with a B.A. in business administration in 1961. He enlisted in the United States Coast Guard Reserve that summer and became a member of the Presidential Honor Guard.
After completing his active duty service in 1962, Ellis moved to New York City and received a master's degree in retailing from New York University in 1963. He accepted a position as a sportswear buyer at Miller and Rhoads, Incorporated, a Richmond department store. As one of the store's most successful buyers, Ellis often made design suggestions to vendors, and in 1967 he moved to New York as a merchandiser for John Meyer of Norwich. Ultimately responsible for selecting the fabrics, colors, and prints for Meyer's clothing lines, Ellis also took over the company's advertising campaigns. After seven years with John Meyer, he joined the Vera Companies, a subsidiary of Manhattan Industries, as vice president and merchandise manager for its sportswear division.
In 1975 Ellis became the designer for Vera's sportswear collection and was soon given his own line of women's sportswear, known as the Portfolio collection. Although he was not adept at sketching designs or making his own patterns, Ellis articulated his creative ideas to assistants. As a fashion designer he was best known for the "slouch" look, a style of casual comfort emphasizing bulky sweaters, loose jackets, and baggy pants, all made of such natural fibers as cotton, linen, and wool. After Ellis's first autumn show in 1977 proved a success, he convinced Manhattan Industries to provide financial backing for his own line of women's clothes, which became Perry Ellis Sportswear, Inc., in 1978. At the same time, in order to control license agreements under his name, Ellis established Perry Ellis International. Two years later he introduced his first full line of menswear, and by the mid-1980s his business had expanded to include twenty-three licensees producing such items as scarves, shoes, perfume, and sweater kits to reproduce his popular sweater designs.
Ellis quickly won renown for his designs and joined the ranks of American sportswear designers Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and Anne Klein. His retail background honed his understanding of what his customers wanted and how to market his fresh, relaxed fashions, which influenced American casual dress for years. Ellis won eight Coty American Fashion Critics Awards between 1979 and 1984 for both his women's and his men's lines. He received the Neiman Marcus Award for distinguished service in the field of fashion in 1979 and the Cutty Sark Men's Fashion Award in 1983. In 1981 the Council of Fashion Designers of America presented him the first of three consecutive Fashion Awards. Elected president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1984, Ellis revitalized the moribund organization and won reelection in 1985 and 1986. He lectured at the Fashion Institute of Technology and at the Parsons School of Design (later Parsons The New School for Design), where he often worked with students on design projects. Not forgetting his alma mater, in 1981 he provided $100,000 for an endowment supporting William and Mary's humanities faculty.
In 1984 Barbara Gallagher, a television screenwriter, producer, and longtime friend, gave birth to Ellis's daughter. Early in January 1986 Laughlin McClatchy Barker, Ellis's partner since 1980, died at the home they shared in New York. Ellis had spent many months caring for Barker and had become very ill himself. On 8 May 1986 he made a final public appearance at his fashion show, where he was unable to perform what had become his signature skip down the runway at the show's completion and could stand only with support from his colleagues. Afterward Perry Edwin Ellis was admitted to a New York hospital, where he fell into a coma and died on 30 May 1986 of viral encephalitis, an infection often present in patients suffering from HIV/AIDS, which has since been generally accepted as the cause of his death. He was interred in the family plot at Evergreen Memorial Park, in Portsmouth. In his honor, in 1986 the Council of Fashion Designers of America established the Perry Ellis Awards (from 2003 until 2006 known as Swarovski's Perry Ellis Awards) to recognize emerging designers of women's wear, menswear, and accessories.
Sources Consulted:
Biographies in Charles Moritz, ed., Current Biography Yearbook 1986 (1986), 118–122, and Jonathan Moor, Perry Ellis (1988), with portraits; Perry Ellis Papers, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg; feature articles in College of William and Mary Alumni Gazette 46 (Oct. 1978): 7, New York Times Magazine, 3 Jan. 1982, Commonwealth 49 (Apr. 1982): 56–61, 106–109, and New Yorker (25 July 1988), 83–86; obituaries in Norfolk Ledger-Star, 30 May 1986, and New York Times, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot and Ledger Star, and Washington Post, all 31 May 1986; editorial tributes in Richmond News Leader, 31 May 1986, and Norfolk Ledger-Star and Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, both 3 June 1986.
Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by Amy Schindler.
How to cite this page:
Amy Schindler, "Perry Edwin Ellis (1940–1986)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2023 (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Ellis_Perry, accessed [today's date]).
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