Those of us lucky enough to spend quality time with lovely Lisa Perry know about her passion for contemporary and pop art. Just take a tour of the stunning homes she shares with husband Richard in New York, North Haven and Palm Beach, for example, and you can’t help but admire a collection that includes Roy Lichtenstein, Chuck Close, and Damien Hirst, and, in what is quite possibly the piece de resistance, the Jeff Koons diamond sculpture that graces the couple’s Manhattan terrace.
The green Koons isn’t the only showstopper at the home. There’s also Perry’s uber-cool vintage couture closet with iconic pieces from Paco Rabanne, Andre Courreges, Rudi Gernreich, and Pucci.
All these factors add up to the persona that is Lisa Perry and her fashion label that celebrates its 10th anniversary today – quite appropriately on 10/10.
The milestone inspired her to look back at her first decade.
“Becoming a designer was really a fluke,” Perry admits. “I am a collector of vintage fashion from the Sixties. And in 2007, I decided to make some samples based on my favorite vintage looks since friends liked what I was wearing. My background is in textiles, so I found some fabric I loved and a person to sew – and voila! I had a collection.”
But even so, said collection was still only intended for friends and family—or so she thought. “It was when stores became interested in what I was doing that I could officially say I was a designer,” she recalls.
That’s how the Lisa Perry business was born with an aesthetic that is informed by the designer’s interest in Sixties fashion and pop art. In fact, art has been instrumental in conveying Perry’s message. Over the past decade, she has collaborated with artists (or their estates), including Jeff Koons, Robert Indiana, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Donald “Drawbertson” Robertson. Her current fall collection was inspired by Spanish artist Joan Miró.
She has taken the aesthetic beyond garments and into a lifestyle from tabletop to notepads and pencils.
“Today, I think of myself not only as a designer, but as a creative director for my brand, as we branch out into a number of different categories,” Perry says. “I also work with a wonderful design and merchandising team at Barneys New York where I have an exclusive partnership.”
Asked about her favorite moments in her first decade, she points to “the thrill of seeing my brand in my very first window displays, including Barneys New York, Bloomingdale’s, and Bergdorf Goodman. That never gets old! Another would be working on and celebrating all of my artist collaborations. Namely Warhol, Lichtenstein, Indiana, Koons and Leo Villarreal. I was really proud of the results and it was very rewarding creatively.”
Of course, there was also dressing her friend Hillary Clinton and seeing her on stage in one of her designs during the 2017 election. During the decade, she also had a chance to translate her vision into freestanding retail stores. “Though there are lots of headaches involved, it’s a wonderful seeing your own store, creating the environment, working with the customers and meeting fans of the brand. It’s very gratifying,” she says.
After 10 years, Perry has a clear idea of what she loves and doesn’t love in fashion.
“My favorite thing about fashion is creative expression on the part of talented designers, and the equally creative customers who make things their own,” she says. “One of the drawbacks has been the celebrity culture. It can sometimes seem that any celebrity with a big social media following can establish a fashion brand.”
To celebrate her 10th anniversary, Perry created a capsule collection of 10 personal favorites from the archive, which launches today at Barneys New York.
The collection includes the Warhol soup can dress, and her A line dress featuring her signature circle motif which has been present in some way in almost all of her collections.
“It wasn’t easy picking 10 out of a thousand or more, but these were all clear winners to me,” she explains. “And several of them are from the very first collection, so that felt right for an anniversary.”
