Patrick Kelly once said, “I want my clothes to make you smile,” and they do, all these years later. Ever-vibrant, playful, and artful, his clothes inspire joy as soon as you see them. And so a children’s book on a man who appears to have kept his inner child near seems natural.
Set to release in January 2026, “Clothes to Make You Smile: Patrick Kelly Designs His Dreams,” a picture book biography written by Dr. Eric Darnell Pritchard and illustrated by Shannon Wright, tells the story of a boy who always knew he was different. In his hometown of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Kelly “didn’t see many boys who liked to sew,” the author wrote.
But, determined to make something of his passion, with the support of his grandmother, who also gave him the buttons that became his design signature, his difference made him an icon. One who would chart new territory as the first Black and American designer admitted into the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode in 1988; who craftily reimagined racist iconography as playful sophistication, hence his brand logo; and who dressed the likes of Madonna, Grace Jones, Cicely Tyson, and Gloria Steinem. Or “all kinds of women,” as Kelly told People in 1987.
Most of what we know about Patrick Kelly is what he’s done, and his artistic achievements. Pritchard’s book, in addition to that, offers a glimpse into the person behind the fame. “We don’t have much knowledge about Patrick, you know, as an icon, and all the ways he has been serviceable, but then also as individual,” Pritchard shared.
The challenge of embracing one’s individuality starts as a child and often continues through adulthood. “Clothes to Make You Smile” portrays the journey of a man who did, and who did so out loud.
Below, Dr. Pritchard speaks with ESSENCE about the process of authoring their book on the historic Black fashion designer Patrick Kelly.
ESSENCE: You grew up seeing Patrick on television. What about his work or his personality initially spoke to you?
Dr. Eric Darnell Pritchard: I had to get back into the place of what it was like for eight and nine-year-old me. I saw someone who resonated with me because he felt different. And I couldn’t articulate what that meant for me as a child, but I knew that I wasn’t quite like everybody else, and I always felt [like] an outsider in one way or another. I was watching television and seeing someone who, to me, also looked like an outsider, and yet he was completely the center of attention. There was something intriguing about that.
I think [I] connected to his being Black. I grew up in New York [so] I knew who fashion designers were, but I never knew there was somebody who was the boss. What I felt most connected to was that sense of being an outsider, and at the same time [someone who] celebrated that in himself, and then made clothes that with every stitch, every fabric selected, every accessory, wanted other people to have that same sense of “it’s okay to stand out.”
You’re also writing a full biography of Patrick Kelly. At what point did you decide he would become your subject? Although “subject” feels flat.
For me, biography is an act of resurgence. You’re raising the dead, you’re reanimating a life. The journey of getting to finish the book was figuring out that he wasn’t a subject for me anymore. I needed to have a kind of critical distance from him, and at the same time bring him closer to myself, allow him in [to be an] ancestor.
Was a picture book always part of the plan?
The plan was not to do that. Then, my agent at the time said to me, “Have you ever thought about writing something for young people that tells his story, too?” And I said, “Yeah, all the time, but I don’t know how to do that.” And she said, “Well, you should try.” So it was Thanksgiving 2021, I was sitting around doing absolutely nothing, and I [thought] well, let me try. I got out a piece of paper, I knew how long picture books were, about the amount of words they were, and I just started writing.
I do think that there’s something really wonderful about that. One of the things I hope this book will do is show the significance and importance of biography about Black fashion figures and give people a sort of idea of what that could look like in each of those genres, from childhood to adult nonfiction, and all of it being biography. It’s one of those things where God dreamed a bigger dream for me than I dreamt for myself.
It also makes sense because of how playful Patrick Kelly’s design work is.
When I first saw the cover [of the book] from Shannon, it looked more like what was in my mind for the adult non-fiction book. I almost feel like it was supposed to happen in the order that it is happening.
What did you enjoy the most in authoring this book, and what were some of the challenges?
I’ll start with the challenges. The challenge is that I have an appreciation for picture books, and that, because I enjoy them, and specifically because of my work as a literacy advocate, picture books are incredibly hard to write. I think people look at it and they’re like, “Oh, this is only 700 words, 800 words.” But because of that, it’s really, really difficult, and you also have to learn to be a collaborative writer, and that is not something that I have ever experienced at all.
My favorite thing about it [is that] I learned to become a better writer of every kind of thing that I write, because writing the picture book made me figure out how to be [leaner] with words, but still make them powerful, and have an impact on people. I think the collaborative experience with an illustrator helped me; that has been a beautiful part of the process.
How did you decide what to include in the book?
As with all writing, you think about who your audience is; you want this to be something that people are going to connect with; you want children to look at this book and see themselves in it: boys who are artists, who are creatives, who want to learn how to sew or make things. They can look at this book and see a five-year-old, [and] six-year-old, Patrick Kelly. This was his actual life: enjoying those things, loving those things.
What do you want readers, adults or kids, to take away from the book?
[That Patrick Kelly’s] life is a testament to the courage it takes to dream. And also, not only your individual tenacity, but the gift of having other people who are fellow travelers with you, and people who champion you to continue to pursue that thing you wish to do.
That’s what I would want people to take away. To just be courageous, to stand out, and to see your authenticity, your difference, as the thing that, for some time in your life, may be the thing that makes you feel less than. But the day will come when you realize that that’s the thing that makes you special and that there are a lot of people out there who feel the same way, and you’ll find your folks, and everything will be fine. His life is a testament to that.
Most of us have some kind of difference, even if we don’t quite know what it is at first.
His grandmother was the one who did that for him. His grandmother was the person who affirmed throughout his life the thing that he was laughed at about most, the things that he was teased about, not just as a child, but all the way through trying to make it in fashion. Once he got to Paris, those were all the things he turned around to make the thing that made him special. But that took a lot of courage, and an unshakable form of self-belief.
Hopefully, as a picture book, this will do that for young people. That’s my hope: that something that I have written, something that Shannon has drawn, or the confluence of the two, will be something that people will be able to go back to—just the way we go back to words of wisdom from people who have loved us our whole life, or books that have touched us our whole life.