Daily Front Row

2010 May 4

Patrick Robinson-ology

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Patrick Robinson
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(NEW YORK) The buzz may be all about the Gap today (well, and this gap), but what of the man behind the mega-brand? The Daily takes a look back at Patrick Robinson, from his California childhood to the serendipitous meeting of Virginia Smith…
EMILY GYBEN

September 8, 1966: Robinson is born in Memphis, Tennessee, but grows up in southern California. Before heading to college, Robinson starts a small surfwear company as a teen.

1989: Graduates from Parsons.

1990: Works on Le Collezioni White Label by Giorgio Armani.

1994: Joins the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

1995: Named head designer at Anne Klein. His future wife, Vogue’s Virginia Smith, is working at the time as Anne Klein’s head of public relations. After three seasons, Anne Klein Collection shutters, and this third season never ships.

1996: Named one of Vogue’s 100 rising stars.

1997: Starts his own Asian-inspired eponymous collection with Italian manufacturer Coba after traveling through the continent while unemployed.

2003: Hired to remake a lower-priced women’s sportswear collection for Perry Ellis—which ends in a dispute after Robinson pushes for the collection to sell in high-end retailers like Barneys. He’s nominated for a CFDA, but sits with the Vogue table rather than with the Perry Ellis team. He resigns in 2004.

2005: Named designer at Paco Rabanne, owned by Puig Group. Corporate restructuring and a certain Fall collection that never shipped create strained relations.

2007: Designs a collection for Target’s GO! International line.

May 2007: Named head designer at Gap.

May 2008: Gap’s Design Editions (started in April 2007 in partnership with the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund) comes back for a second round with designers 3.1 Phillip Lim, Michael Bastian, Band of Outsiders, Threeasfour, and Philip Crangi. In May 2009, the third installation hits stores with creations by Alexander Wang, Vena Cava, and Albertus Swanepoel.

May 2010: Robinson is named co-chair (with Oprah Winfrey) of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala when Gap sponsors the exhibition “American Women: Fashioning a National Identity.”