Pat Cleveland has been an international top model for over five decades, working for some of the most prestigious fashion designers, including Halston, Valentino, and Armani. In addition, Ms. Cleveland has worked with many well-respected photographers, like Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, and Steven Meisel, and fashion illustrators, like Antonio Lopez, Joe Eula, and David Downton. She has appeared in numerous fashion publications, including Vogue, Ebony, WWD, Essence, W Magazine, and Interview, and has been painted by Salvador Dali and worked with Andy Warhol. Her career as a model was so influential that mannequins were made in her likeness, which are still seen in department stores globally.
Ms. Cleveland has traveled extensively as a fashion ambassador, and during the 1992 Summer Olympics in Spain, she represented the city of Barcelona as a fashion icon. As an actress, she has performed on stage and acted in foreign films and American films and TV shows. As a lyricist, Ms. Cleveland has written, recorded, and performed in the United States and Italy. She is also a published writer with a book of poetry, In the Spirit of Grace, and an autobiography, Walking with the Muses, published in 2016. She is currently working on a film based on her autobiography and a documentary about her mother, Lady Bird the Artist. In the last year, she contributed to eight new fashion documentaries and is a frequent speaker at museums and events.
She has received many awards for her work, the most recent being the Thurgood Marshall Award for being a fashion icon.