NEW YORK, NY.- Age means nothing to me. In my mind, I’m probably 40. I’ve always gotten my energy by associating with people who are younger. I still do. It’s a habit I formed early in life. Young energy is optimistic.
That pattern continues in my store/art gallery on East Broadway in Manhattan and in my projects. I did a book last year. I don’t like to call it a memoir because “memoir” suggests some kind of an ending, and I wasn’t feeling an ending. The book was more a trip through a series of experiences. I had the opportunity to speak my words, so I did.
I had a great time on “Happy Clothes,” the documentary I worked on with director Michael Selditch. Part of the fun was being filmed tooling around Brooklyn in my T-Bird with the top down.
The documentary opens with me swimming in a pool. I’ve been swimming since I was a kid. I feel spontaneous in the water. That scene has memories that are meaningful to me. Swimming reminds me of my mother, who was a swimmer as well. We had a little bungalow in Connecticut off a lake called Bantam Lake, and we would swim there most days.
My mother had a dry cleaning business in Queens — I think of her as an entrepreneur — and she was a major influence in the way I am. She wasn’t the kind to give advice. She did what she did. But the ambition I got, it started with her.
The women in my family, my aunts, my grandmother — they were achievers. They inspired me. They taught me: Do what you like and what you’re good at, and you’ll make things happen. I’ve always liked fashion, so working in fashion was easy for me.
But to do what I love, I need to be inspired. Nothing clicks if I’m not inspired. Darren Star, whom I worked with on “Sex and the City,” challenged me. He wasn’t always happy with my styling choices, but I could usually sell him.
Betty Halbreich inspired me. I was shocked when I worked on projects with her at Bergdorf Goodman and she told me that she had daughters in their 70s. That meant she was in her 90s at the time. Age didn’t mean anything to her.
The people who inspire me now are artists I’ve associated with: Jody Morlock, Scooter LaForge. These are people I’ve known for years. Their work is in my gallery. For me, they represent a kind of continuity. They impressed me, and what impresses me stays with me.
When people start carrying on about me, calling me a legend, an icon, it’s a distraction. It makes me feel an obligation, that the name is something I have to live up to. Me, I’m not a diva. I’ve never liked being in the spotlight. I’m not here to be famous.
I’ve had long-term relationships, one with a stylist, another with a woman who was a go-go dancer when I met her. Right now there is no one special in my life. I feel a little lonely sometimes, I’m not going to deny it. But I think I’m better off having nobody to answer to.
Late this month we’re moving to a new gallery space on East Broadway, one that gives us more visibility. I’m happy to have a storefront on the street again. I wouldn’t say we’re moving forward so much as moving on. Only when you’ve lost interest is it time to stop. If you close yourself off, it’s over.
Me, I’m still here with my team figuring out the next day.
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Recent and upcoming projects: Subject of “Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field,” a documentary that opened for theatrical release on Friday; “Pat in the City: My Life in Fashion, Style, and Breaking All the Rules,” a memoir published in 2023; Patricia Field ARTFashion Gallery, a combined store and gallery, set to reopen this month at a new location at 211 E. Broadway.
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.
