Black History Month: Pat Cleveland

In the word of elite fashion modeling, Pat Cleveland is an unbridled force of nature. At times outlandish, other times outrageous, she's always out on life's stage with a healthy attitude.The Cherokee/Black/Irish gazelle was first spied by a Vogue Editor in 1967 at the age of fourteen on her way to Manhattan’s LaGuardia Performing Arts School.  The former muse of Yves St Laurent, she became fixture on runways and in print ads, she's also inspired a line of department store mannequins. Which is ironic, as she's probably one of the liveliest models of all time.

Alicia Drake in the book The Beautiful Fall  (a must read if you haven't!) described Pat Cleveland’s arrival in Paris in the late 1970’s, saying, “[she came] with liquorice hair, legs like pipe-cleaners, and a Harlem shimmy dance-movement that recalled Josephine Baker…she [ate] up the catwalks with her shimmering sexiness and laughter, bringing a movement and dance to fashion that no one had ever seen before. ”

She writes poetry, and she also keeps a blog, Being Pat.