Ossie Clark: The King of King's Road!
by Liz McGrath posted on February 26, 2009Welcome to this new feature, ‘Fashion Heaven’ which is about celebrating our fashion heroes who are gone but not forgotten! We take a look back at lives that were sadly not always lived well, but were certainly always lived fashionably! Rest In (fashionable) Peace.
Fashion Heaven: Entry #1.
Ossie Clark, Fashion Designer. Born 9th June 1942 – Died 6th August 1996.
Ossie Clark was a British fashion designer who made his name in the swinging sixties – he was a pivotal figure at a very exciting period when the music, fashion, film and photography scenes started coming together for the very first time. He was greatly inspired by the music around him and his flowing dresses, sparkly jumpsuits and wild flowery patterns have come to signify that time in music history exactly, they are the embodiment of the word ‘retro’. Given that fashion is all about reinterpreting the past, it’s not surprising that now his designs are just as desirable now as they were then – these days original Ossie Clark pieces are seriously expensive and considered collector’s items, worn by well-off lovers of vintage such as Kate Moss.
Clark was a very talented young child and his skill was noticed early on – he used to make clothes for all his nieces and nephews aged just 12 years old. He attended the Regional College of Art in Manchester aged 16, where he met his muse, business partner and future wife future wife Celia Birtwell, and his long-time friend the artist David Hockney. (Hockney was rumoured to be Clark’s sometime lover. He painted the legendary picture of Ossie and Celia both together titled “Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy" – percy was their cat). After graduating from Manchester, Clark attended the Royal College of Art where he gained a first in fashion design and his graduate show was an immediate 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.
For his first proper collection, he was commissioned by Alice Pollock for her exclusive boutique Quorum on the Kings Road. It was her idea that Celia create some textiles especially for the store – and that was how one of fashion’s greatest partnerships began. Celia designed the prints and Ossie designed the actual dresses. The collections were sell-out hits and he became known as The King Of Kings Road. Unfortunately Pollock also introduced Ossie to recreational hard drugs, which was to have a very detrimental effect to his life.
The period from 1965 to 1974 is regarded as his zenith, during which time he had many famous clients. Clark’s great idol was the famous dancer Nijinsky and his love of dance inspired his clothes to be free moving and not to restrict the female form. This style of dressing became very popular in the 1970s thanks in large part to the popularity of Clark’s clothing. Clark and Pollock sold off Quorum, which was deeply in debt and had been badly mis-managed by them both – to a large UK fashion house called Radley. This was to prove career-saving and business took off internationally with the “Ossie Clark for Radley” line. His first fashion show for them went down in history and he was also the first British designer to ever use black models in his show. Clark’s designs were worn by the most fashionable and brightest stars of the day – Marianne Faithful, The Beatles, Mick and Bianca Jagger and Jimi Hendrix were all wild for his creations. Unfortunately Clark got too involved with the free-loving hedonistic lifestyle of his rock’n’roll clients and it had a negative effect on his emotional and financial state. He and Celia divorced in the late 70s and she moved out of their home taking their two sons with her. Ossie found it hard to cope and sank into depression and further drug abuse.
In the 1980s, Britain’s youth became infatuated with punk rock. Ossie Clark’s romantic flowing gowns were no longer in fashion. He tried numerous times to revive his business but it wasn’t to be. His fortunes declined, he went bankrupt and largely stopped working. About this time, Clark also became a devout Buddhist. Although officially out of business, Ossie would design freelance and do one-off dresses for friends and loyal fans and he also trained the designer Bella Freud to pattern-cut in the early 1990s. In 1996 Ossie Clark’s life was tragically ended at home in his Kensington council flat, when his deranged 28-year-old Italian ex-boyfriend Diego Cogolato stabbed him 57 times.
While his life ended so sadly, we would instead like to remember Ossie as he was at his best, a master cutter, a genius dress-maker with extraordinary vision and passion who truly captured the hearts and minds of a generation in love with music. He became an icon to fashion-fans the world over. All hail The King of King’s Road!
If you want to know more about Ossie Clark’s life and desgns, check out this
V+A website , built especially for their Ossie Clark retrospective which took place a few years back.
The Ossie Clark label was relaunched in 2008. Read the article on their F/W 2009 show here
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