COOL PAT CLEVELAND INTERVIEW FOR VOGUE
“This Rag Doll, No Tits, Was On Her Way To Europe”: The Journey Of 1960s Black Fashion Model Pat Cleveland
PAT CLEVELAND WAS ONE of the most famous black models to break through fashion's exclusionary policies of the 1960s and 70s, paving the way for today's black supermodels. By Ben Arogundade. [Apr.08.2016]
BLACK FASHION MODEL Pat Cleveland rose to fame during civil rights era America, along with a raft of other non-white beauties such as Donyale Luna and Naomi Sims, who broke through fashion's racism at the same time.
Cleveland was born in New York City on June 23, 1952 to parents of mixed ancestry and nationality. Her mother, Ladybird, was an African American painter who grew up in the Jim Crow South, while her father, Johnny Johnston, was a white Swedish jazz saxophonist. Cleveland’s parents split when she was very young, after which she was brought up by her mother.
PAT CLEVELAND'S FASHION MODEL BIO
Cleveland studied at New York’s High School of Art and Design, where her first love was fashion. By her early teens she was designing and wearing her own creations. Her career as a fashion model began by accident in 1967 when she was spotted on a New York subway by Carrie Donovan, an assistant editor at Vogue magazine. The 14-year-old was on her way to classes at LaGuardia Performing Arts School when, “This assistant followed me,” Cleveland recalled. “My girlfriend said, ‘You better run. There’s a dyke chasing you’. I said, ‘What’s a dyke?’”
Donovan, impressed with Cleveland’s offbeat style, invited her to Vogue to show her fashion designs. The magazine published a feature on her as an up-and-coming young designer. From there she was picked up by African American lifestyle magazine, Ebony, to model for their annual Fashion Fair national runway tour. Soon, designing was out and modelling was in.
BLACK TROUBLE FOR CLEVELAND
From the start, Cleveland cut a distinctive figure on the 1960s modelling scene. She was tall, slender and light-skinned, with aquiline features and a splay of free-flowing black wavy hair that she referred to as her “magic carpet”. While on tour with Ebony, her European-style beauty meant that she was able to use the white washroom facilities, while her dark-skinned fellow models could not. But within the biography of her eventful career Cleveland didn’t escape racism herself. She recalled one incident, while on the Ebony tour in Arkansas: “The Ku Klux Klan were coming, and their were throwing things at our bus with flames and fire, trying to kill us,” she told Barbara Summers in Skin Deep. “I’ll never forget that, because they didn’t want to hurt us, they wanted to kill us because of our colour...They tried to rape this one girl.”
PAT CLIMBS THE FAME LADDER
After working with Ebony, Cleveland began to attract the attention of the major fashion designers of the day, working first with famous names such as Jacques Tiffeau and Stephen Burrows. Soon she was meeting and working with all of fashion's top playmakers, including Diana Vreeland, Irving Penn and Andy Warhol. She eventually signed to New York's Ford modelling agency after a recommendation from designer Oleg Cassini. But despite her early success Cleveland grew disillusioned with America and its racist attitudes towards black models. “There is no work for colored girls,” said agency boss Eileen Ford. Cleveland decided it was time to get out of America. One day, fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez invited her to try her luck in Milan and Paris instead. “This rag doll, no tits, was on her way to Europe,” Cleveland recalled in Michael Gross's fashion biography, Model: The Ugly Business Of Beautiful Women.
FAMOUS IN PARIS
Cleveland settled in Paris in 1970, vowing never to return until US Vogue printed its first black cover. From her new base the young beauty's career took off. She modelled for designers such as Valentino, Oscar de la Renta, Yves Saint Laurent, Thierry Mugler, Christian Dior and even artist Salvador Dali. Along with Karen Bjornson and Anjelica Huston she became one of Halston’s favoured troupe of models, nicknamed the Halstonettes. She modelled part of the day and partied the rest of the time. While in St Tropez with Karl Lagerfeld she went to lunch on the beach dressed in diamond collars, bracelets, rings, high-heeled shoes and a G-string. In London she partied with the gay crowd and dated Mick Jagger.
PAT CLEVELAND INVENTS RUNWAY NARRATIVE
But it was on the runway that Cleveland, now 65 years old, established her fame. She brought her own theatrical style to the business, and her appearances were viewed more like performance art pieces. Cleveland could “tell a story in a dress”, remarked fellow model Rene Hunter. “When she moved, she painted the air around her with the clothes,” said Janice Dickinson. The pinnacle of her runway ostentation took place on November 28, 1973, when she was chosen as one of 30 black models to participate in a special runway event at the Palace of Versailles in Paris. Five famous American fashion designers lined up in a face-off with five of France’s best, in front of 800 guests. Fashion had never witnessed black beauty in such concentrated magnitude, all wearing the best designer clothes in the world.
Cleveland returned to United States in 1974 (the year of US Vogue’s first black cover model), and continued modelling into the 1980s. She went into semi-retirement after getting married and giving birth to two children, Anna and Noel. Anna has followed in her mother's footsteps in becoming a fashion model, and in 2015 the two appeared together in an ad campaign for French brand Lanvin. Last year Cleveland finally told her amazing life story in her memoir, Walking With Muses.
Ben Arogundade's book, 'Black Beauty', is out now.
BLACK MODEL BIO: 1960s beauty Pat Cleveland was one of the first famous black fashion models, the forerunner to Naomi Campbell and Noémie Lenoir. She became known for her theatrical approach to fashion's runway shows.
The Creativity of Author, Designer & Publisher Ben Arogundade
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A PICTURE BIO: Young Pat Cleveland with her mother Ladybird. MOTHER & DAUGHTER: Pat Cleveland models for fashion brand Lanvin with her daughter Anna, also a model. NIGHTCLUBBING: Cleveland and fellow model Jerry Hall at the Studio 54 nightclub in the 1970s. COVER GIRL: Pat Cleveland graces the cover of the September 1971 edition of French fashion magazine 'L'Officiel.
*MODEL PAT CLEVELAND ACCORDING TO GOOGLE SEARCH
1,000
The number of people worldwide who Google the phrase, “Famous black models” each month.
3,600
The number of people worldwide who Google Pat Cleveland's name each month.
*All figures for “Model Pat Cleveland According to Google Search”, supplied by Google. Stats include global totals for laptop and desktop computers and mobile devices.
