If you’re a follower of Purely Patricia on Instagram or all platforms, know you she’s caught they eye of many photographers, you-tubers, news organizations and the like. Like moths we’re drawn to her style, taste, fashion, but then… if so lucky… we’re able to talk and have a conversation in a series of photos and this non-interview interview. Patricia and I had the opportunity to sit down for an hour conversation post shoot, and reflect and explore on a variety of topics.
As a point of fact, I’m not one to rehash questions and answers that other outlets have used. That is definitely not KARJAKA. We don’t really do interviews.
Instead, we let the tape roll for an hour, and the crew and I picked out various tidbits of our lengthy conversation, and ended appropriately with a question that I ask all the people in our orbit. We’ve managed to condense the talk into about 10+ minutes of stylish conversation and photos with the simply fabulous Patricia Fox, that are sure to satiate the senses. -KAR
PP: How do you start it?
KAR: That red button.
PP: It’s going? Yeah. Okay.
PP: So, before we jump into our interview…
PP: I’m an interior decorator, interior designer. That’s how I earn my living. And I am not formally trained. I’m an artist. I feel that when you’re a true creative and you have a strong sense of style, it infiltrates every aspect of your life. So you know before you come into my home that it isn’t going to be a completely white, high glossed painted space with lucite, for example, or plastic. I mean, it’s just because I wouldn’t want to live like that. You know, I have to have a place. It could be a backdrop for my stuff, but I was thinking about this last night. I stayed home yesterday and I redid my dressing room. And I redid the dressing room. I can’t wait to see it. You know, it’s just clean and neat and organized.
KAR: Mmhmm.
PP: There’s a reason, which I’ll tell you.
And so I was thinking about the joy of being home, and how important that is and that I love. So there’s an app that says about taking a moment and reflecting before you start your day.
And today it said think about something you love to do and why you like to do it. So I’m sure that there’s a lot of answers to that question, but I had just done my dressing room. And I played all day in my own apartment space, cleaning, wiping, moving, adjusting, trying on. I walked around with a crown all day in my own apartment, and high heels that I never would wear out. But I never stopped wanting to get dressed up since I was a very, very little girl.
So when I’m home, I like to put on my clothes. I’m fascinated with my own wardrobe. And I don’t spend a lot of money on clothes.
KAR: Talk to us more about that.
PP: Okay. Because when I wear and I used to be in the jewelry business, real diamond earrings and then inexpensive $2.51 ones from Target, more people will compliment me on the $2.50 ones. So it’s never really about how expensively you dress. It’s how you put your things together and the result, which is, you know, a walking installation. And that’s what we’re doing in this article.
KAR: We are.
PP: First of all, for me, I am not one to judge criticize or find fault in my own image, how a photographer through his camera portrays me. I welcome the reality of knowing how I actually look in the best of light through your camera’s eye, and the fantasy that I live in 24-7, feeling that because I’m a dressed up person and I get dressed up to go out into the world, I have no idea the impact that I have on other people or the attention that I create.
We had this conversation at our first meeting.
KAR: We did.
PP: For me I have no clear intention other than to be feeling good about myself personally. And so like to see these photographs, where I’m catching myself from doing, is seeing the natural aging process.
I am of a certain chronicle logical age.
KAR: Mmhmm.
PP: But I am not of a certain health age.
KAR: Absolutely.
PP: And not mentally, physically. So I’m able to jump and feel and look and be and do, and when I’m unable to slow down a little bit, sometimes I slow down a little bit, “I say, I wonder why I feel like I need to slow down a little a little bit” and then say, “oh, maybe it’s because, you know, you’re a certain chronological age and, you know, that I don’t know.”
I know that you frown on that because you don’t have that same sense.
And sometimes, which then we don’t have to dwell on age per se, but so many people are often curious about, they’ll make a comment like, … “I want to grow up to be like you,” you know, and my answer is always,
“Well, be you now because you don’t know what you’re going to grow up to be. And if I inspire you in this moment, then take what it is that resonates with you about me and apply it to yourself”
Right?
KAR: Of course. Beautifully put.
PP: And on the other thing is that people will ask me, how old I am, and you know, you can’t be defensive about your age.
KAR: No.
PP: Because it creates a whole other conversation that I don’t find appealing. So I devised a way of responding to that famous question, which is a natural curiosity.
Whether it’s your dog. Yes. You know, I used to lie about my dog’s age because I thought that she looked cuter if she was younger. People treated her differently as opposed to saying how old she actually is, which is 12.
People say, “Oh.”
You know, they have a different sympathetic way of looking at her.
KAR: Yes.
PP: So that’s interesting. I was once on the subway with my person, and somebody said, how old is your dog? And I said four, and my person said six. And so the guy said, oh, so the dog is five.
(Laughing)
And which is really, very cute. So when people ask me, how old I am, you know, and I don’t want to create a conversation around that, I just ask them, “how old old would you like me to be?” And oftentimes, if they’re 48, they’ll say 47 or if they’re 60, maybe 55. So you can have some fun about discussion around how your age is without making it something that’s not negative, but something kind of frivolous and fun.
The greatest gift about aging is that you do do that, because the alternative, of course, is that you’re sick or you die young and, you know, that’s an unfortunate thing. You know, and life is precarious, right? So, and unpredictable.
KAR: Completely.
So, every day that I get up, I thank God, mostly my essence of grace, for my health. Because without that health, you can’t go into the world and I cherish it. And I put great value on it, and so that’s what I wanted to say.
In relationship to the images that you took, I see looking now, I love my arms, seeing them in your photo, I see how they photograph and maybe that’s the reality of the whole thing. I don’t really know. But I don’t buy into it.
KAR: I love that. That’s the Real. Listen, I’ve been taking portraits commercially for 20 years now.
PP: Oh, my goodness, I didn’t know that, Aleks.
KAR: Oh, yeah. I’ve been doing this a minute. And the thing is, I’ve had this same if not similar conversations my entire life. And the thing is these images and words are really a testament to who you are, because, you get to imbibe who you are, as I fear so often get to do.
People become so judgmental or they start the negative speech against themselves or all this comparison. And at the end of the day why your photos are so vibrant is because you are vibrant, your soul,, all that you possess and that you’re not encumbered by what this form, this physical body is, as opposed to how you get to be, in the world.
There is there is a spiritual difference. A lot of the photographers or people that I work with, when they do see that, (about their arms) they either ask for everything to be retouched or on occasion a few of my clients will be like, “That was really good, but let’s do a reshoot once I’ve had something done.”
PP: You must sink when that happens.
KAR: Well, it’s it’s like, it’s like my babies are dying. My team and I, like we photographed to you in the middle of July, something like that, and it’s now, it’s nearly October, right? My team and I, we went through the photos for weeks. You know, we put all this time in because you deserve that, you deserve our time, and our craft, and our skill because you gave us your time in craft and skill, right?
PP: And what do you do if that happens? Besides feel angry, resentful, and the like, give me my lighter. I would never, by the way, think of doing that, reshooting. I would never, in a million years, think of doing that. And there’s a couple of reasons.
KAR: Tell me.
PP: One is because the nature of our relationship is important to me, and I see it beyond this article. … If I was so self-centered and ego and being, I would insist upon it, and that’s not my personality either. Not at all. … It would be insulting to both of our disrespectful in some way, to even think of asking you to do that, because I know it’s your magazine and you want it to be a reflection of you and your art, and I’m the subject. Lucky me.
PP: I’ve seen that Vogue and Bizarre put, like, Julia Roberts is on the cover of a new magazine.
KAR: 72 Magazine by Edward Enniful, yeah.
PP: I mean, he put Julia Roberts on the cupboard shoots absolutely like she needs a steak.
KAR: Exactly, and some greens. She looks a little emaciated.
PP: And he took away her smile, which she’s famous for, and what he created was a gaunt looking, unhappy Julia Roberts.
KAR: You look at that cover, his cover of 72, and it’s just devoid of life, in my opinion. A woman that’s like that and everything is dark. The background is dark.
PP: It’s a black and white cover. Yeah, I think it’s. I think it’s a gray cover.
KAR: Yes. It’s a lot of grays. I don’t actually remember it. Then that’s the whole point is that I don’t remember it versus when I look at like with you with the neon, with you on the couch, with every setup is like, they’re all so specific, like they’re all within our style, but they’re all different, but they have that streamlined feel to it. And there’s something beautiful about that.
PP: Do you have a copy of yours with you, why don’t you have a copy?
KAR: Interestingly enough, in today’s world, people are dying for physical. Everything has gone so far with the digital, more and more people are asking for the physical copies.
There’s something about that when you open up and you feel the paper, you feel the experience of opening up a magazine in today’s world. Even like opening People magazine or even Vogue’s paper, when you feel it, it’s not the most luxurious thing’s, it’s not the most exciting thing. You’re not really there for the texture of the paper. You’re there for, the photos, the articles, the little details, maybe an advertisement.
PP: If there was one curiosity that you’d like to know about, and I grant you one question, no matter what, what it is what that is, what would that be?
KAR: What lights you up? What excites you about your world? You’re clearly an artist, everything that you do permeates into everything else. There is no line separating yourself between worlds of Purely Patricia, from model, interiors, fashion icon etc. Is it self expression that soothes your soul to create?
(Pause)
PP: What excites me… and that’s a great question… is, I love to get dressed up and go out into my world which happens to be New York City. The worst thing that could possibly happen to me is getting dressed up with no place to go. That happened to me once in my life, and it was like having a flower and not watering it and eventually just shrinking, drying up, and disappearing which is what happened. It was in a marriage, in another state, and being around other people who don’t understand, don’t appreciate. I don’t have any expectations of other people looking like me, and people are always asking me, “What are you dressed up for?” and I say, “I am dressed up for my life.” So, I love to get dressed up for my life. It is a way of self expression and if I can carry something that I have made, which is a conversation piece, … the simplest act (of purchasing shoes) can become an entire aria of an opera.
