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.
Praise
"Cheerful mixed-media illustrations layer angular painted paper collage with photographic elements like buttons and thread. The result is a fabulously tactile visual experience that pops off the page. A playful and poignant look at a designer who dressed the world in joy."
—Kirkus Reviews
“This buoyant picture book biography decidedly looks good, with Wright’s striking mixed media and Photoshop illustrations, collaged with buttons and thread in vibrant colors—a perfect fit with a story about a love of materiality and fashion. The focus on laughter through difficulties will remind even the non-fashion-focused kiddos that creating doesn’t have to be painful.”
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
“Featuring a combination of fabric scraps, buttons, colored pencils, and miscellaneous ephemera, Wright’s mixed-media artwork captures the essence of Kelly’s dopamine-sparking aesthetic.”
—Publishers Weekly
“In its introduction of a fashion icon, this debut also offers representation of a gay Black man, uncommon in picture books…The illustrations are bright and vibrant, using button, yarn, acrylic paint, and colored pencil, among other materials in a way that is appropriately unique, setting this book apart.”
—Booklist
