Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field, which premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, is a celebration of the iconic, red-haired fashion stylist, a New York native of Greek heritage with a throaty voice and a love for color. “I like happy clothes,” she says early in the film. “I love color, combinations that are not typical.”
The new documentary is directed by Michael Selditch (Queer Eye, Catfish.) Field, now 81, recently wrote about her 50 + years in the fashion industry, penning a memoir, Pat in the City: My Life of Fashion, Style, and Breaking All the Rules.
Field’s self-named shop was a West Village staple that supported upcoming local artists-turned legends such as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, was a haven for club kids (a young RuPaul can be seen speaking while working at the store), and clothes horses for decades. Field helped raise up those around her. She recommended one of her protégés Molly Rogers, to be the stylist on And Just Like That. Happy Clothes, released during Pride month in New York, is also a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community, and explores some of Field’s relationships.
She has dressed iconic NYC characters Carrie Bradshaw (portrayed by Sarah Jessica Parker) and Samantha Jones (portrayed by Kim Cattrall) on HBO’s long-running Sex and the City. In fact, it was Parker, who first worked with Field on a film called Miami Rhapsody in 1987, that sought Field to dress her on City (who can forget that tutu in the show credits!). Bradshaw and Cattrall fondly share moments in the documentary, along with show creator Darren Starr, Michael Urie (Ugly Betty), Lily Collins (Emily In Paris), and others. She also worked her magic on the film The Devil Wears Prada, and many others.
Cattrall has asked Field to team up with her once more, for a cameo on season two of AJLT. Other shows Field has worked her magic include Ugly Betty, Netflix hit Emily in Paris for season 1 and 2, and currently Run the World, now in season 2 on Starz.