Ask any fashionista to name the top three young fashion designers, and one name will appear for sure: Patrick Church.
Patrick granted me an interview last week, and let me in on an aspect of his clothing line I didn’t know. When it first began, some of his clothes were made right here in Texas! For example, a newsprint-style pullover, matching shorts (see photo), and jacket, were made in Houston. Patrick’s husband Adriel is from Odessa, Texas, and lived in Austin for four years.
I asked Patrick first about the influence of London and Paris on his creative work.
“I lived in Paris for a year. I just wanted a change of scene, but living in London has heavily influenced me. The DIY punk aesthetic and Vivienne Westwood: I was obsessed with that growing up. I feel like it’s never left me. When I went to Paris, I immediately noticed how beautiful everything was and how everything felt like a new experience. I found that people treated themselves so chic. I loved the store Collette. I do love French style and fashion – no one does it like them!”
I asked Patrick about his artistic inspirations. One is the French painter Francois Boucher (1703-1770). “I did textiles at school, and I remember Vivienne Westwood would reference a lot his paintings on her clothing and use them as prints. It was such a contrast to her punky clothes, with these gorgeous delicate paintings. I just thought they were so pretty and I liked the juxtaposition of that.
“El Greco: I love his work because I find it quite dark and I just really gravitated towards it. I’ve suffered like a lot with depression and anxiety and I can kind of see that within his work. But I like the emotion and the rawness within his work.
“Andy Warhol: I’ve always been obsessed with him because I just feel like he’s so much more than just an artist. He created his own universe and moved the culture forward. I think what he did as an artist is so clever and it’s something that I aspire to. His art was so like ingrained in his life and I feel like that’s the same with me: like I can’t separate myself from it. He did art on clothing, on people, on walls, on canvases: it could translate onto any surface and I think maybe subconsciously I’ve taken that on as well.”
I asked who his favorite living artist is; a 61-year-old English artist came to mind. “When I was younger I really related a lot to Tracy Emin. I still love her work, just how sort of personal it felt. I found like it gave me a lot of comfort in times when I needed it, I could really relate to some of the things she was saying. It really resonated with me.”
Patrick and I have both have a fascination with Versace, which I started buying in the 1990s.
“I just feel like it’s such a theatre, and that’s what I love. I know everyone’s really into silent luxury now,” a style characterized by understated elegance, “but It’s just something that I do not relate to! When I wear Versace’s clothes, I really feel like myself, you know? That feeling – it feels so special.
“I was actually looking at his Miami collection from the ’90s and it feels like artwork, you know, and it feels very over the top, very exuberant, and camp, and I love that. And I just feel like it was a moment in time, and I mean I didn’t even experience the moment (I was born in ’91), but I remember my mum used to wear full head to toe Versace.
“He’s just so over the top! I love the matching sets he did. I think with the brand, like what we’ve done, you can always tell it’s my work and I think with him as well, like he has such a strong brand identity and you can always tell it’s his work. I’ve started collecting vintage pieces from the 90s. To be able to have those archival pieces just feels really special and I want the same thing with my brand. People do collect it; everything’s named and we really don’t make many of each thing so it feels like artwork.”
I told Patrick I could not find any clothes to express my style until Versace came along, which struck a chord with him. “It’s funny you say, like you couldn’t find anything of Your Style. I felt that as well like when I was 14, 15. I know now we have a lot more queer designers and sort of fashion has that space in it now but when I was trying to find things I wanted to wear I couldn’t. I wanted matching sets and stuff like that and I remember I couldn’t find anything other than the Versace stuff and I couldn’t afford it. I remember one time I wore a pair of matching pajamas out at night and stuff like that, but that’s what I wanted to do with my brand. It was from such a selfish point of view in the beginning” that his clothing designs began. “I just wanted to make things that I wanted to wear but couldn’t find, and there was this space for it.”
Patrick explained that “my husband Adriel runs the brand with me and he designs a lot of the clothes and we do a lot of the creative together, especially with visuals.” I asked about a potential new item in the line: a Patrick Church tie. “Adriel likes ties a lot; he always wears them. It’s not really my style, but one of the new pieces that we’re launching, we’re going to make a few ties that go with it. So that will be in the near future.”
Just as important as his clothes are his original artworks. “I did a show on Fire Island, that was the last thing I did last summer and I’m working on a new body of work that I want to show. I’m trying to think of unconventional ways to show my work now because I just feel like things can get stale, you know?” Instead of a formal gallery showing, he is doing an event in Miami on April 27. “I’m bringing my studio outside and I’m going to be doing live paintings of models on big canvases. It is sort of like an installation pop-up gallery kind of studio situation outside. And then people will be able to see me painting in person and that’s what I really like to do. I like the performance of it.”
The intersection between art and clothes is expressed in the most exclusive pieces he does. “People will reach out to me and they give me something that is really special to them, like a jacket, and they’ll want me to paint it for them. Doing those one-on-one commissions from people is what that I’ve always done from the beginning of my career. That’s always meant so much to me because of the connection that you make with someone doing that. It’s like a one-of-a kind piece.
“My hand-painted pieces – I call them Patrick’s originals – I think doing those pieces is sort of what keeps the soul within my brand. I feel like I never want the soul to leave like my work.”
Fans can expect new releases on a fairly regular basis. “I try to do like four drops of them a year. These mini collections is what I’m doing.” Looking back at some high points, Patrick said “I also did a collaboration with one of my best friends who’s a tattoo artist named Ruby: she’s super talented and we did a small collection of clothes together. But the thing that stands out to me the most was doing the collection with Amanda Lepore three or four years ago. I’ve always been obsessed with her and I wanted to work with her in some capacity. I just feel like she’s such a star and so influential to me. So, to be able to do something like that with her was really, really exciting.”
The reaction to one design that Patrick was surprised at was a pair of long gloves. “I remember when we first launched those, I was like, ‘no, no one’s gonna buy these’. And we sold out of all of them, like straight away. So, I knew we were on to something. It’s one of our signature things that we’re doing.” Two more designs of these gloves just dropped this month (see photo with model for one of them).
Looking back on the clothing business, which launched in 2018, Patrick reflected “It’s a lot of work. Yeah, ’cause it’s just me and my husband doing it together, so it’s pretty crazy but it feels like a baby to us. You know like we’ve grown it from nothing; we’ve had no help, no investment. We just did it ourselves and it’s sort of like the other love of our life. It’s interesting to see how it’s all panned out.”
To start building your own wardrobe by Patrick Church (my favourite young designer), visit the website:
www.patrickchurchartist.com
B&W photos of Patrick Church are by Gavo Vivero. On instagram: @gatoriveroph
Photo: newsprint-style shorts, in the personal collection of C Cunningham
Photo credit for model shot: Misael Belt and @_santi_