Designer comes back to the beach

Alicia Robinson

In 20 years, Patrick Robinson has gone from creating wildly colored

surf shorts with self-taught sewing skills to reviving the renowned

designer label Perry Ellis.

This weekend, the Orange County native is back in Newport Beach,

where he used to surf every day wearing the shorts he made. He’s

making his sole personal appearance to promote his latest collections

for Perry Ellis on Saturday at Fashion Island’s Bloomingdale’s store.

“This is home, and I really haven’t been back since I moved to New

York,” Robinson said.

Such a visit is a rarity for Bloomingdale’s in Newport Beach, and

about 150 customers are expected to turn out for the event, store

spokeswoman Erin Bianchi said.

“Most of the time, designers of his caliber will go to our New

York store or our L.A. store,” she said. “He said he wanted to go

home to Newport Beach.”

Describing himself as “an artistic kid” who liked to create

clothes and furniture, Robinson said when he was a teenager he and

his friends wanted more exciting surf shorts, so he just plunged in

and made them even though he didn’t really know how.

“There was no logical reason for it,” he said. “It was just an

impulse, and I did it.”

That same sort of haphazard ambition propelled him quickly to the

top of a career in design -- after his father talked him out of

becoming a doctor. Robinson attended New York’s Parsons School of

Design and its Paris branch, where he worked for design houses

Givenchy and Patrick Kelly. At the age of 24, he landed a job as

worldwide design director for Giorgio Armani.

After a stint at Anne Klein, he started his own company and

operated it for five years, but he found it too difficult to run both

the business and creative ends and he never found the right partner

to share the work, he said.

“I was poor because I put every cent I made back into the

business, and it was a constant struggle to make ends meet,” he said.

He had just closed that business and started designing furniture

when he was recruited to be creative director for Perry Ellis, a

dream job for him.

The company was basically rudderless after founder Perry Ellis

died, Robinson said, and his job was to steer it back to success.

And he thinks he’s done that, especially with his last two

collections, which have brought him a flurry of media attention.

Robinson was just named one of America’s favorite designers by

Harper’s Bazaar and People magazine called him someone to watch,

Bianchi said.

Robinson said his latest collection reflects the essence of the

Perry Ellis label -- chic, charming and optimistic. The clothes

incorporate his California background, with spring colors such as

lilac and pistachio, and his New York design sensibilities, with

trench coats, wide-legged trousers and ruffled skirts.

“I think it’s just a great exposure to a line, and if you have a

passion for fashion, it’s always great to see the face behind the

creation,” Bianchi said.

Patrick Robinson will be at Bloomingdale’s, 701 Newport Drive, from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday. To attend the event, call (949)729-6626.