He also offered a whimsical shirt printed with the image of his muse, the model Pat Cleveland.

"I told him my dream was a show with Pat Cleveland and Iman modeling," Mr. Kelly said.

One day, he continued, an anonymous benefactor (he is sure it was Pat Cleveland) sent him a free plane ticket to Paris.

For the company's latest additions, Mr. Arpino turned to a familiar face, the model Pat Cleveland, who was first made into a mannequin in 1977.

And at fashion shows, the models used to walk down the runway in Pat Cleveland's era spinning and turning and relating to the editors.

The reason Pat Cleveland and I were on either side of him is that he said, 'Don't leave me.'

In January 2011, the models Eveline Hall and Pat Cleveland walked the runway; both women are over 60 years old.

"He was the center of the universe," his friend and muse, Pat Cleveland, said last week from her home in Italy.

"We get a lot of letters from people who believe as we do," says Pat Cleveland, the association's director and Roger Cleveland's wife.

"Not even if they threw in Pat Cleveland as a fringe benefit."