An international fashion designer who calls Memphis home, Pat Kerr came by her career, as well as her remarkable textile collection, honestly. Growing up on a plantation in Savannah, Tenn., she loved to dress her dolls when she was a little girl. Looking for scraps of fabric became a hobby that evolved into a passionate pursuit for lace, tapestries, linens, embroideries and other handmade lovelies. Before all was said and done, Pat had stitched her way into the realm of high fashion as a successful bridal designer, reworking her prized lace finds into the most exquisite lace gowns known to women, including a long list of American celebrities and European royalty.
Today, she is one of the world’s leading collectors of antique lace and textiles and a recognized authority on the subject. “I believe that fine handmade lace was an undervalued commodity for many decades,” said Pat, in town this spring for the opening of the Princess Diana exhibit at the Atlanta Civic Center. “When I learned that a single piece of intricately patterned lace could take the artisan designer over a year to create, my fascination with this magnificently beautiful art form increased.”
Indeed, Pat’s extensive collection of 16th to 19th century lace spans the globe. Her first unofficial buying trip was a college excursion to the Orient in the ’60s. “I left my girlfriends buying jewelry and handbags, so I could hunt around the antique stores looking for laces and embroidered fabrics to add to my collection.”
When she met international financier and entrepreneur John Tigrett, Pat turned yet another page in her amazing story. She became Pat Kerr Tigrett, jetting off with her husband to spend 20 years living in a magnificent London home, where the two were integrated into a social strata that included heads-of-state, the Royals and European aristocracy.
Pat’s phenomenal time in London afforded her the quality pieces, including treasured items from Queen Victoria, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Empress Eugenia, Edward VII, the Duke of Wellington and the Duke of Kent. “Royals have an innate appreciation of the finer things which is why so many were responsible for the continuation of lace-making in their countries,” she said, citing Queen Victoria’s patronage of the old lace houses of Carrickmacross and Honiton.
