Signature Dress

Designers Jerry Skeels and Randy McLaughlin Fight AIDS with Fashion
by Kathleen Bowling

In 1982, Time magazine reporter Claudia Wallis wrote the first nationally-published story about an unknown illness. At that time, AIDS had struck just 547 people living in America and twenty-one abroad and could be traced to a grand total of just 232 deaths, worldwide.

In her article, Wallis quoted the head of the first CDC task force to study AIDS, Dr. James Curran, as saying, “This is a very, very dramatic illness. I think we can say quite assuredly that it is new.”

Even as Wallis penned those words, two Los Angeles fashion designers embarked on a project that would forever tie them to the fight against the disease that has since become an unfortunate household-name and claimed the lives of 25 million people all over the world. The project—the Hollywood Graffiti Gown; the designers—Jerry Skeels and Randy McLaughlin.

In the late 1970s, Jerry Skeels was an apprentice to Nolan Miller and Bob Mackie. He worked on prime time television hits including Dynasty, The Love Boat, and Hart to Hart. And while he was rising in the ranks of the fashion world, he met actor/model Randy McLaughlin who was in L.A. to appear in ads for BMW as well as act in movies and TV shows. A talented designer in his own right, McLaughlin made many of his own costumes.

The two formed a personal relationship, as well as a professional partnership they called Jeran Design. Featuring impeccable taste and flawless construction, their gowns started to gain a following, eventually attracting the attention of actress Joan Collins, who chose them to design her poinsettia gown for the December 1983 cover of Playboy magazine. “We did thirty-five talk shows pertaining to that dress,” Skeels says. “It attracted a lot of attention and really catapulted us to the top of the Hollywood design-elite.”

More attention followed, with their gowns appearing on the covers of TV Guide, Esquire, and People. During the early eighties, they designed for Bob Barker’s Beauties for The Price is Right, spokesmodel contestants on Star Search, and flamboyant singer Little Richard. In 1984, they designed the wedding dress for Nicki on The Young and the Restless, played by Melody Thomas Scott [A&U, October 2006], and played themselves on the show.

Not only were they designing for celebrities for awards shows, but their work started popping up on award lists for outstanding original costume design. In 1992 and 1995 they received Emmy nominations for P.S.I. Luv U and One West Waikiki.

In the early eighties, McLaughlin had a vision of a beautiful black frock that could somehow be used to help the world. He shared the dream with Skeels, who agreed they should devote their time to creating such a gown and parlay their professional success into a means of helping others.

Twenty-five years and more than 500 signatures later, the pair has logged immeasurable man-hours into designing and assembling the stunning floor-length German-velvet black couture gown. With dogged determination, they have sought after and collected hundreds of celebrity signatures which they have meticulously hand-beaded onto the one-of-a-kind garment. They have adorned the striking dress with bugle and Rochelle beads, Swarovski crystal stones, and custom-made platinum beads donated by Platinum Guild International.

The first two signatures that the duo collected were from Rita Hayworth and Bette Davis. To date, hand-beaded autographs include everyone from Lauren Bacall, Elizabeth Taylor [A&U, February 2003], Katharine Hepburn, Sophia Loren, and Barbra Streisand, to Whoopi Goldberg [A&U, June 2000], Miss Piggy, and all of the “Desperate Housewives.” The Hollywood Graffiti Gown, which was unveiled for the first time in 2004 at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ TV Cares Annual Ribbon of Hope Celebration, will, at the completion of its world tour, be auctioned for no less than $1 million, with all of the proceeds to be donated to AIDS education, awareness, and prevention.

“My dream is for this gown to have the same impact as the AIDS quilt,” says McLaughlin, adding that he and Skeels hope that the winning bidder will ultimately donate the gown to a national museum, such as the Smithsonian, “so that it will unite people of all ages, cultures, and religions to come together and raise AIDS awareness, education, and prevention, internationally.”

In addition to their work in fashion, Skeels and McLaughlin are successful producers, songwriters, and playwrights, who wrote a one-hour drama, “Devil in the Disguise” for the television series, Night Man. They have also written the musicals Out There and Lost Spirit, original creations which they say blend the themes of fantasy and life.

Singing lead on the demo CD for Out There is their longtime client, friend, and Broadway star Dale Kristien, who played Christine in Phantom of the Opera for four and a half years. She met Jerry and Randy while she was doing a fundraiser for Actors & Others, a nonprofit foundation for the humane treatment of animals.
“They were the designers for the fashion show,” Kristien says. “I later walked into their studio and was very impressed. I knew then that I wanted to wear their designs.”

Like all of their celebrity clientele, Kristien was happy to provide her signature for inclusion on the graffiti gown. “I remember a time when someone talked about AIDS and I thought they were referring to a diet candy called Ayds. Since then, I’ve lost a lot of people to the disease. I think it is wonderful that Jerry and Randy are doing so much in the fight against it.”

Jeran’s efforts in the war against AIDS appear in an award-winning documentary, by London producer Tyrone Murphy, which premiered at the Lake Arrowhead Film Festival in April 2006. The Hollywood Graffiti Gown follows the team as they gather and hand-stitch celebrity signatures, talk with people whose lives have been touched by AIDS, and share their own philosophies about AIDS research and education as well as societal stigmas they faced early in their careers.

One of the film’s highlights is when television executive, Vivian Callahan, poignantly shares the story of losing her brother to AIDS: “He was a golden child. He had beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes. But he lost most of his hair and had horrible scabs all over his body,” she tearfully recalls. “Emotionally, he was a wreck because he was trying to reconcile his faith with the fact that he was gay. And then I got a call that he had slipped into a coma and was brain-dead. We all gathered at his bedside. They took him off life-support and he died.”

Looking straight into the camera, Callahan continues, “If anybody thinks that this issue is something that won’t affect them, then they need to think again. This disease doesn’t just affect gay people. It affects us all.”
Devoting years and shedding tears over the Hollywood Graffiti Gown has been, for Skeels and McLaughlin, a labor of love. “When I look at the gown and what it represents,” says McLaughlin, “it almost takes my breath away. It is going to make a huge statement. And, in the end, even if it only saves one life, all of the time and effort will have been worth it.”

Skeels concurs: “I enjoy collecting signatures for the project because in the moment that a woman signs her name, she transforms from a public entity into a wife, sister, mother, or friend who has been touched by the disease and wants to join in the fight against it.”

The gown will soon be taken on a world tour to raise awareness about AIDS. Then, the boys hope to begin work on a project they call “The Hollywood Tails,” a tux that will bear the names of famous male personalities. Working out of their new hometown and studio location in Lake Arrowhead, California, where they have been named, “Lake Arrowhead Ambassadors,” the team has already started collecting signatures for the garment.

“We hope that we can all join together so that millions of lives can be saved,” said Skeels, “If we all do just that one thing, then together we will be able to accomplish a great deal.”

Kathleen Bowling is a freelance writer living in Running Springs, California. Before relocating to the mountains outside of Los Angeles, she and her family enjoyed delivering meals through Project Angel Food.

May 2007