Patricia Field
Last week I finished Patricia Field’s Pat in the City: My Life of Fashion, Style, and Breaking All the Rules and I have never zipped through a book so fast.
Patricia - needs no introduction - Field is a trailblazer with hair as red hot as she. Daughter to a very Greek family, Pat spent early life closely watching the dress rituals of women in her family.
You know Pat’s work from styling Sex and The City, The Devil Wears Prada and countless more but did you know that her eponymous store Patricia Field was a NYC cultural mainstay from its conception in 1966 to closure in 2016? (The original shop was named Pants Pub!)
If not, Pat is here to tell you. Through colorful graphics and pages as buzzy as the $5 tutu she thrifted for Sarah Jessica’s iconic title sequence look, Pat writes of her epic life’s experience.
But back to her shop really quick. Patricia Field was a haven to gay, trans and club kids. The shop was somewhere Pat made home. It also featured everything! Cone bras before Gaultier, wigs and even a pair of Jean Michel Basquiat pants before Basquiat was Basquiat.
To understand the texture to which this space was truly appreciated, please know that Pat was literally hailed as the “father” of the House of Field in her own Ballroom house. Pat was at many balls and speaks to the gravity of that rich culture. She understands her position in getting a peak into this scene. There are many a epic photographs sprinkled throughout such as this gem with her and the late and great André Leon Talley.
The surprises don’t stop there! Much to my delight, I was one day reading Pat’s book when I stumbled upon this picture of Pat with Rosemary Wettenhall of Madame Matovu vintage, the fabulous shopowner and seasoned fashion veteran whose store I like to frequent on West 10th street.
When asked, Rosemary told me yes those were the days! She also said someone had already showed her the picture to which I was glad because in it Rosemary looks so beautiful and its hard to believe the photograph is from the 80s.
Okay other Pat things I learned. Well before there was Carrie there was this delighftul Diane Lane moment from Lady Beware (1987) where Pat was recommended to design the costumes. For this raunchy thriller, we follow Lane as an urban window dresser, and Pat does not dissapoint. Graced with a bitchin’ orange cone negligee, Diane is fierce as can be. One can only assume this cone bra is Gaultier, but knowing Pat’s personal penchant for cone bras its safe to assume the brassiere might pre-date Mr. Jean Paul.
I really love Patricia y’all. What a joyful book, filled with such exciting tidbits and behind the scenes lore. Of course her relationship with Sarah Jessica is in there, her consistent right hand gal behind clothing fantasy that is Sex and the City. I loved this bit below where Pat commends Parker’s knack for heels. I had no idea Sarah Jessica did ballet training! Those Manolos have never looked better. And that pirouette is to blame!
I just adore Pat’s rich insight into our modern day dress. Seen in the text to the right. She is so right. Fashion tells the story of the culture of the time. We are post pandemic, in a state of sweatpants and athleisure. This is the dress of our times. Pat knows better than to judge it, for she is a historian more than a hater. Her insight is measured and has the credit of 6 decades in merchandise, styling and wardrobe to match.
Ms. Field has been on the street. She has watched this shit change. She has seen the Bell Bottoms trade in for Alo Leggings. She gets to stand the test of time in fiery red hair and a bedazzled iron fist!
So cheers to Pat, a patron saint of the funky and the fabulous, the high and the low, the bedazzled and the charmed. May you never stop moving and shaking up this often dull world with the rich stroke of your colorful mind!
PS: I leave you with some EPIC Pat Quotes as a treat <3
“I’m happy that people got out of their dull rags and put on some imagination, personalized it for themselves. I think that’s what’s important - how you express yourself in the way you present yourself. And you don’t present yourself by the dictates of a magazine or whatever. It has to come from you, you’re inside yourself. You express yourself like no body else does. We each express ourselves in our own way. And that has to be present for it to be interesting.”
“Jeans and T-shirts for example reveal a weak economy”
“If you dress in an optimistic or intelligent or interesting way, that means that you know that you’re alive and your brain is operating”
brb need to purchase immediately <3
on my to-read list now!