From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Raymond "Ossie" Clark (9 June 1942–6 August 1996) was an English fashion designer who was a major figure in the Swinging Sixties scene in London and the fashion industry in that era. As a result, Ossie is now extremely well renowned for his vintage designs, the contemporary fashion era being characterised by past influences and a retro feel to design.

Clark is compared to the 1960s fashion greats Mary Quant and Biba. He is also known to be a great inspiration for many fashion designers, including Yves Saint Laurent and Tom Ford. Manolo Blahnik has said of Ossie Clark's work: "He created an incredible magic with the body and achieved what fashion should do — produce desire." His clothes are highly sought after, and are worn by well=known models like Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell.

Ossie Clark is featured in David Hockney's 1970 painting Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy. It now hangs in the Tate Britain gallery on Millbank and is one of the most visited paintings in Britain. His diaries, which he began in 1971, were published posthumously by his close friend Lady Henrietta Rous in 1998 as The Ossie Clark Diaries. In 1999-2000 the Washington Museum and Art Gallery held the first retrospective of his work. Another retrospective was held at London's V&A museum in 2003. A book from this show, Ossie Clark: 1965-74, is published by Adrams Books and the V&A Museum.

Contents 1 Early days and education 2 Early career 3 Peak: 1965-1974 4 1980s and later 5 External link

Born in Warrington, Lancashire, England in 1942, Raymond Clark's parents, Anne and Samuel Clark, moved to Oswaldtwistle during the war, hence his nickname, "Ossie". Ossie's mother, Anne Grace Clark, was in labor with Ossie for seven days during an air raid in World War II. Anne hd been expecting a girl and so had no name picked out for her new baby. She let the midwife name him Raymond. Ossie was the youngest of six children ( Gladys, Kay, Beryl, Sammy and John ). Ossie and his brother John sang in the church chior at St Oswarld's church in Winwick where Ossie won awards for his vocal talents.

Family and friends noted that from a very early age he was "brilliant at doing anything". Young Ossie would make clothes for his neices and nephews. He practiced tailoring clothing on his dolls and designed swimsuits for the neighborhood girls when not yet ten years old. The Art teacher at Ossie's Secondary School recognised Ossie's creative flair and gave him a large collection of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines. Clark pored over these magazines and took in all the glamour and cutting edge fashion.

At the age of thirteen Ossie studied architecure in school. He later said that the experience was"invaluable" The class taught him the fundimentals of proportion, height and volume. He would later go on to use all of these to great effect in his fashion designs.

Soon after leaving Beamont Secondary Technical School, Clark attended the Regional College Of Art in Manchester at age sixteen. Ossie had to get up very early in the morning to make the long trip from home to college each day. Anne Clark would give Ossie prescribed pills to keep him awake and alert. This would be the start of a life-long addiction to both prescribed and illigal drugs.

While attending college in Manchester, Clark was introduced to Celia Birtwell by a close friend and classmate named Mo McDermott. The pair started out as just good friends but that friendship soon developed into a love affair. Ossie also became good friends with artist David Hockney during this period. Clark and Hockney took a insperational trip to New York together while still at college where they made many valueable connections in the fashion, art, and entertainment communities. The friends are widely rumored to have been lovers with a volatile relationship. Clark graduated from Regional College of Art in 1958.

Clark then attended the Royal College of Art in London and achieved a first-class degree in 1965. While attending college in London Celia Birtwell came to live with Ossie in his small Notting Hill flat. Ossie's degree fashion show at the RCA was a huge success. At this time Ossie's design style was heavily influenced by Pop Art and Hollywood glamour. The final line-up featured a dress with flashing lightbulbs down the front which was shown in every major newspaper and fashion publication the following day. The fashion press swamped Ossie with requests for photoshoots and special order garments. In August that year he had his first feature in British Vogue. A popular shop named 'Woodlands 21' in London's Sloane Street was the first to begin selling Ossie Clark's clothing line.

He quickly began to make his mark in the fashion industry, with Alice Pollock's exclusive boutique Quorum featuring his designs in 1966. Ossie had met Pollock at a party on the King's Road and so taken with the young designer was she that she immediately ordered a whole collection of dresses for her boutique. Ossie presented a colletion of white and cream chiffon garments that sold fast. Pollock wanted Clark's clothes to have a more organic feel and so commissioned Celia Birtwell to produce special textiles for the next collection. In this way, one of fashions most famous collabetaions was born: with Osssie Clark designing clothes and Celia Birtwell desiging prints.

This partnership would last for almost all of Clark's career in fashion. Author Judith Watt comments: "Celia collaborated with Ossie. This was a joint effort. People say that she was a muse, which indeed she was, but their work was absolutely went hand in hand. It was her designs that he used to create his. I think it's unfair that she not be given that voice"

Ossie was noted from this period on to buy six new record albums a week of all the newest and most popular recording artists. His record collection was love pf music and art were famous amongest Ossie's friends. Also at this time, Ossie began to take hard drugs more recreationaly with friend and bisness partner Alice Quorum. "This is when his character began to change" says longtime friend lady Henrietta Rous.

The first full Ossie Clark collection was bought by the Henri Bendel department store in New York. This was the first export of a talent young British designers work. His simple, elegant dresses were widley copied by the designers on Seventh Avenue.

The period from 1965 to 1974 is regarded as his zenith, during which time he had many famous clients.

In the late 1960s, Clark hit a rich vein for his flamboyant clothing range. The fashion press dubbed Ossie "The King Of King's Road". Clark pronounced himself a "master cutter. It's all in my brain and fingers and there's no-one in the world to touch me. I can do everything myself." Clark's great idol was the famous dancer Nijinsky and his love of dance inspired his clothes to be free moving and not to resrict the female form. This style of dressing became quite popular in the 1970s thanks in large part to the popularity of Clark's clothing. Ossie Clark is well known for his use of muted colours and moss crepe fabric. He and Birtwell also designed shoes, paper dresses, and snakeskin jackets.

In 1967 Clark presented a fashion show at Chelsea Town Hall for Pathé News. He also showed his first full collection in London's Berkeley Square. Clark's was the first ready-to-wear collection ever to present a show during London fashion week. It was also the first British fashion show to feature black models. In 1968 Clark agreed to design a diffusion line for Alfred Radley that made his clothes available to a high street clientele. By this point in their relationship, Ossie and Celia were at the apex of their working relationship.

Celia would work up several prints of her own design and liking, with no imput from Ossie as to their color or print. The prints were usually based apon Birtwell's interpretations of the natural world. Clark would then design clothing based around and inspired by these designs. Ossie would give each new creation it's own special name, such as: 'Blanche', 'Star', 'Lapis', 'Ziggy', and 'Galaxy'. His most requested dress was named the ' Graduation' dress. This style is usually made in black moss crepe.

In 1969, he married Celia Birtwell. Although Ossie was openly bisexual and carried on many affairs with men, he and Birtwell had two sons Albert and George, together. Clark had long hoped for a large family of his own and his children were a great joy in his life.

Clark was not just popular in London, but also in New York and Paris. He dressed the rich and famous who inhabited the beau monde of the late 1960s and early 1970s of London. Clark got in on the ground floor of many of the popular performers and actors of the time period and was accepted in their circles when many other designers were not. This gave him many advantages to dress the rich and famous. Clark made many stage costumes for Mick Jagger, the Beatles, Marianne Faithfull and Liza Minelli, among others.

Although society and celebrities accepted Clark as one of their own, Ossie always felt less appreciated artistically and financially then some of the people he was surround by. This feeling would lead to many personal frustrations. More and more Ossie would work less and party more and his work began to suffer.

Clark freely adopted the hedonistic lifestyle of the 1960s and 1970s: his drug use greatly impacted on his emotional state and finances. Downfall soon followed, including bankruptcy in 1983. Clark and Birtwell divorced in the 1970s. This started a slow downward spiral for Ossie, who never recoverd emotionally from the separation from Birtwell and his two children. With his family structure and work stability now gone, his creative output became strained. Birtwell recalled:

I don't think he ever thought I'd leave him. He never quite forgave me for that. But I could only take so much of his lifestyle. He loved his family very much, but was not willing to settle down.^{[citation needed]}

Going into the 1980s, fashion — British fashion in particular — turned towards the new punk rock craze. Clothing from Vivienne Westwood's shop on the King's Road became the most popular look. Ossie Clark's romantic flowing gowns were no longer in fashion. His business declined and Clark went bankrupt and eventually was forced to close his business. In this time period, Clark became a devout Buddhist. Although techniclly out of bisness, Ossie would design freelance and do one-off dresses for friends and loyal fans. He also trained the designer Bella Freud to pattern-cut in the early 1990s

In 1996, Ossie was stabbed 57 times in his Holland Park apartment by his former lover, Diego Cogolato. Congolato then broke Clark's skull with a teracotta pot, killing him. Cogolato was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for six years.

• Victoria and Albert Museum – biography, image gallery of his works and more