Meet Designer Patrick Robinson

“I’ve done a lot at a young age, but I pushed myself hard, and I gave up a lot of my personal life for my work.”

Patrick Robinson was born on September 8, 1966, in Memphis, Tennessee. He grew up in Orange County, Los Angeles. While in high school he worked part-time at Nordstroms at the Cerritos mall. Patrick’s first attempt in fashion was when he created his own small line of beach wear, inspired by his love for the surfing lifestyle. His love for fashion stemmed from a movie he saw that featured American designers Calvin Klein and Jeffrey Banks. After graduating from High School, he attended the Parsons New School of Design in New York City, where he graduated in 1989. He also studied at the American College in Paris. While studying in Paris, Patrick apprenticed under up and coming fashion Patrick Kelly.

Soon after Patrick was hired by Italian designer Giorgio Armani to design for his bridge line, Le Collezioni. After agreeing to start the next day, he flew to Italy for the job and he completed an entire season’s worth of clothes just ten days after arriving.

When he arrived back in New York, he became head designer at Anne Klein, where he designed three collections. Patrick soon found himself unemployed when his third collection for Anne Klein was not even shipped to stores when Japanese executives decided to close the Anne Klein Collection (Anne Klein II).

He traveled through Asia for several weeks and upon his return, he hired a staff and set up a design house in his New York City loft, and began courting backers. He finally created a line of clothing bearing his own name, it was launched for the fall/winter season of 1997.

In 2007 he took on the role of head designer for GAP, he was responsible for much of the brand’s revamped jeans line. In 2011 he was left go after sales continued to drop.
After that Patrick officially returned to work as the creative director for A/X Armani exchange.

 Source: answers.com