At 83 years old, fashion designer/icon Patricia Field seems to accomplish more in one morning than most people do in a month. Slackers and ageists, take note! In Michael Selditch’s joyful documentary, Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field, you’re guaranteed to conclude that you haven’t done enough with your life. Best known for her unforgettable work on Sex And The City, Emily In Paris, Ugly Betty, The Devil Wears Prada and for her trend-setting Manhattan stores dating back to 1966, Patricia Field has always been associated with a burst of colors and patterns, not always matching, yet always memorable.
How appropriate then that the documentary feels the same and is all the better for it. Eschewing many of the tropes littered across so many biodocs, Selditch creates a heady vibe instead. We get smatterings of backstory and talking heads from such luminaries as Kim Cattrall, Sarah Jessica Parker, Lily Collins, and Michael Urie, but the vast majority of this film evokes that fly-on-the-wall bottled lightning from simply watching Field go about her day tending to her many projects. Sure we learn about her upbringing and her relationships with women over the years, but we get no deep character exploration. In fact, its mission statement almost feels like the opposite. Patricia Field, with her chainsmoker voice, shock of red hair and incredibly chic eyewear, comes across as a lovable curmudgeon, someone who will tell a driver the fastest route but who will do so with a smile. She’s got Larry David’s assertiveness, Joan Rivers’ work ethic, and yet has that sweet and salty, Mama Bear quality of Mercedes Ruehl in Big. She clearly knows what she wants and fearlessly voices her opinion, yet she also enjoys the company of others, especially the raft of designers and staff she’s worked with over the years. Consider her the ultimate New York Diva who’s also a good hang.
Beautifully and astutely shot by cinematographer Kris Lindenmuth, the film has a natural flow, and while fairly stakes-free, had me smiling the entire time. Here’s a subject who enjoys interacting with others, but doesn’t especially believe the hype they often spew at her. Considering herself more of a consultant than as designer, Field downplays so much of her work and seems to attribute it to having a good gut. She’s so refreshingly matter-of-fact in that way I love New Yorkers more than any other people on the planet. As she says late in the film, “I just want to live until I die and that’s the end of it.” What an unpretentious way to sum up a big life such as hers. Yes, at her age she admits she’s ready to retire, and with her juggling her television shows, fashion designs, memoir, and this very documentary, who can blame her for wanting to finally kick back?
More than anything, this film gets to the heart of an artist’s aesthetic. We watch as she sparks to a certain fabric or shoe design. We marvel at her eye for combining patterns. Her relationships with those she’s dressed also gives us so much insight into how her mind works and why actors feel their characters so well when Field gives them their framework. I especially loved hearing Michael Urie talk about how his crazy looks came together on Ugly Betty and how it instantly defined him.
Of course, many will look for signs of tension between Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker, both interviewed here separately, yet both speak so lovingly of their collaborations with Field and how their costumes helped turn them both into iconic stars. One could squint really hard and see a little one-upmanship between the two in who has a better relationship with Field, but that’s a mighty big stretch. In fact, this may be the least gossipy film I’ve seen within the world of fashion. She set the world on fire and had fun doing it. Never self-aggrandizing, Patricia Field, like this fun little slice-of-life doc, is pure pop fizz.
By Glenn Gaylord, Senior Film Critic
Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field opens theatrically on Friday, September 20th at IFC Center in New York with an in-person Q&A with Patricia Field, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Michael Selditch at the 7pm showing, and a Q&A with Field and Selditch on Saturday, September 21st at the 7pm showing. The film is also released on demand and digital on September 20th.
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