Ode to Ossie Clark (and Celia Birtwell’s prints&patterns) by edie featuring Ossie Clark dresses

Ossie Clark was the London phenomenon in 60’s and early 70’s designing fluid feminine silhouettes with vibrant colors and prints. What many people don’t know however is that it was his wife and influential textile designer, Celia Birtwell, who created the masterful works of air for the Ossie Clark collection. She would design the prints and the textiles for Ossie to choose from and then he would drape them and cut them into their final form. The story goes that Ossie Clark rose to fame with Alice Pollock’s exclusive boutique Quorum featuring his designs in 1966. Ossie had met Pollock at a party on the Kings Road and was so taken with the young designer she immediately ordered a whole collection of dresses for her boutique. They sold fast. Pollock wanted Clark’s clothes to have a more organic feel and so she commissioned Celia Birtwell to produce special textiles for the next collection. In this way, one of fashions most famous collaborations was born: with Ossie Clark designing clothes and Celia Birtwell designing prints.

They were a great collaborative team. Although, I have to wonder if his designs would have been quite so popular if it weren’t for his talented wife? Around the same time period ww had the Pucci print craze too, which were much bolder and geometric. Celia’s often used images from nature in her designs; flowers, animals, plants, etc. Then we also had Halston, whose designs were mostly solid colors, but very fluid and drapey. I think Ossie & Celia combined the best of both worlds.