Clothes to Make You Smile: Patrick Kelly Designs His Dreams

Clothes to Make You Smile is a picture book biography about Patrick Kelly, one of fashion’s most influential Black designers, joyously told by fashion expert and educator Eric Darnell Pritchard and beautifully illustrated by award-winning artist Shannon Wright.

Patrick Kelly was one of the most influential fashion designers of the twentieth century, but growing up in Vicksburg, Mississippi, he didn’t see many boys who liked to sew. That didn’t stop him from sitting down at his grandma’s table and picking up a needle and thread.

Patrick loved the way clothes could make someone feel their best, and he dreamed of creating designs full of joy and whimsy. Those dreams brought him to some of the biggest cities in the world, but when he got there, he was told that his clothes were too vibrant, too tacky, and too much!

When the fashion world rejected his designs, Patrick just laughed and carried right on working. He created clothes for people like him, outsiders who didn’t grow up fitting in but weren’t afraid to stand out. He filled his designs with love, and when the world finally recognized his talent, they couldn’t help but smile.

Eric Darnell Pritchard is an educator, scholar, writer and the endowed Brown Chair in English Literacy and Associate Professor of English at the University of Arkansas. They are also the founding Director of the Community Literacies Collaboratory, which supports literacy partnerships for children, adolescents, and adults in Arkansas and nationally. A lifelong lover of picture books and biographies, Clothes to Make You Smile is Eric’s debut book for young readers. Shannon Wright is an award-winning illustrator and cartoonist based out of Richmond, Virginia. Shannon was awarded a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor and a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book for Holding Her Own: The Exceptional Life of Jackie Ormes, written by Traci N. Todd. She tells personal and original stories invoking nostalgia rooted from her own childhood and life around her.